.  £.  Steelier!  &  Co.  | 

Alfred  Hafne 

New  York 


The 
Keys  of  the  Kingdom 

And  Other  Sermons 


BY 


R.  J.  CAMPBELL,  M.  A. 

of  The  City  Temple,  London 


NEW  YORK 


CHICAGO 


TORONTO 


Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

LONDON    AND    EDINBURGH 


Copyright,  1903,  by 

FLEMING  H.   REVELL  COMPANY 

(March} 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  63  Washington  Street 
Toronto:  27  Richmond  Street,  W 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburg:  30  St.  Mary  Street 


CONTENTS 


I.  THE  KEYS  OF  THE  KINGDOM     -  -  J 

II.  SIN-BEARING  -  22 

III.  THE  SELF-REVELATION  OF  JESUS  -  -       37 

IV.  THE  PROMISE  OF  THE  COMFORTER  -  '51 

V.  THE  SELF-ASSERTION  OF  JESUS  -  69 

VI.  GOD'S  PERFECTING  OF  LIFE      -  -  88 

VII.  THE  HUMANITY  OF  GOD             -  -  -  107 


2203352 


THE  KEYS  OF  THE  KINGDOM 


THE  KEYS  OF  THE  KINGDOM 

' '  And  I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven:  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on 
earth  shall  be  bound  in  Heaven:  and  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  Heaven." 
— Matt,  xvi.,  9. 

THERE  has  been  for  ages  now  a  very  great 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  meaning  of  this 
remarkable  utterance  of  our  Lord.  You  will 
remember  that  it  forms  part  of  a  special  ad- 
dress to  the  Apostle  Peter,  and  that  it  only 
occurs  once  in  the  whole  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  is  recorded  by  St.  Matthew,  and  by 
St.  Matthew  alone.  The  utterance  was  called 
forth  by  Peter's  response  to  a  question  of  our 
Lord,  the  question  being,  "  Who  say  ye  that  I 
am  ?  "  And  Peter  answered,  "  Thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  Jesus 
then  addressed  him  in  a  specially  solemn  way, 
singling  him  out,  as  it  seemed,  from  the  rest  of 
the  disciples.  These  were  the  terms  of  His 
address : 


8         THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

"  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-Jona;  for  flesh  and 
blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  My  Father 
which  is  in  Heaven.  I  say  also  unto  thee,  that  thou 
art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  My  church: 
and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 

Next  come  the  words  of  our  text : 

"  I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven:  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  in  earth 
shall  be  bound  in  Heaven:  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt 
loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  Heaven." 

You  know,  I  suppose,  how  the  Bishops  of 
Rome  interpret  that  particular  text.  The 
whole  utterance  they  take  to  be  the  bestowal  of 
a  special  commission  on  the  Apostle  Peter, 
and  the  giving  to  him  of  a  certain  primacy  and 
a  certain  power  of  binding  and  loosing,  in  the 
life  beyond  as  well  as  in  this  life.  This  special 
power  they  believe  themselves  to  have  inherit- 
ed, as  the  successors  of  the  Apostle  in  the  bish- 
opric of  the  Church  of  Rome.  I  pass  by  that 
particular  interpretation,  for  our  business  now 
is  not  controversial,  and  it  matters  very  little 
to  us  how  this  text  is  interpreted  by  the  rep- 
resentatives of  a  great  historic  Church,  to 
which,  in  one  sense,  at  least,  we  cannot  be  said 
to  belong.  But  I  certainly  think  that  it  seems 
to  give  to  Peter  a  certain  primacy :  a  primacy, 
first,  in  the  order  of  time.  He  was  the  first 


THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM         9 

who  recognised,  and,  recognising,  confessed 
that  Christ  was  something  more  to  him  than 
an  ordinary  teacher  could  have  been.  In  the 
expression,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God,"  was  contained  the  germ  of 
all  Peter's  future  experience.  He  knew  God 
in  a  new  way  because  he  knew  Christ.  Peter, 
the  Apostle,  was  born  in  the  moment  when  he 
knew  the  Father  in  Christ.  Further,  I  think 
it  gives  to  Peter  a  special  primacy  in  the  or- 
der of  leadership.  Whatever  we  may  say  as 
to  Peter's  commission,  we  all  agree  that  prac- 
tically he  did  lead  the  Christian  Church,  for  a 
certain  period,  at  any  rate.  And  he  did  it  un- 
willingly, as  we  see  from  the  last  chapter  of 
St.  John's  Gospel.  He  was  more  than  willing 
that  his  brother  Apostle,  formerly  his  rival, 
now  for  ever  his  friend,  John  the  Divine, 
should  assume  the  leadership.  But  the  words 
of  Christ,  addressed  to  him  in  his  humility, 
admit  of  no  misconception.  "  If  I  will  that  he 
tarry  till  I  come,  what  is  that  to  thee?  Tend 
My  sheep:  feed  My  lambs." 

Now,  agreeing  as  we  all  do,  that  in  both 
these  senses  there  is  a  certain  significance  to 
be  attached  to  this  commission,  is  there  any 
other  meaning  to  be  read  out  of  the  text? 

Our  Lord's  words  are  always  full  of  spiritual 


10       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

meaning,  and  when  any  of  them  are  recorded 
you  may  be  perfectly  sure  that  the  work  of  re- 
cording them  was  not  waste  of  time — they 
have  some  relation  to  us  as  individuals.  I 
think  this  text  was  a  statement  of  Peter's  own 
spiritual  experience — that  which  was,  and  that 
which  was  to  be;  and  the  same  truth  which 
applied  to  this  statement  of  Peter's  own  ex- 
perience applies  also  to  yours  and  mine.  I 
will  try  to  show  you  what  I  mean. 

I  went,  in  company  with  someone  else,  to 
see  Mrs.  Spurgeon's  Home  of  Rest  at  East 
Brighton,  and  in  giving  to  you  a  description  of 
what  one  there  saw,  I  am  giving  it  through 
the  mind  of  a  little  child.  The  little  one  was 
surprised  as  we  entered  into  the  hall.  She  had 
no  idea  the  entrance  was  so  grand.  The  house 
did  not  look  anything  very  great  outside. 
When  we  got  into  the  vestibule,  we  saw  that  it 
was  spacious,  lofty,  and  beautiful.  To  some 
people  that  would  have  been  a  house  by  itself. 
However,  we  were  not  permitted  to  stay  in  the 
entrance  hall.  We  were  shown  into  another 
room  on  the  ground  floor,  and  though  we  had 
not  forgotten  the  hall,  in  a  few  moments  our 
interest  was  centred  in  the  new  room.  From 
its  windows  we  could  see  a  certain  part  of  the 
landscape  and  part  of  the  sea,  and  we  were 


THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM       n 

told  that  people  were  accustomed  to  sit  or  stand 
at  the  window  and  look  out  upon  both.  But 
we  came  out  of  that  room  and  went  into  an- 
other, and,  looking  from  the  windows,  we 
found  that  the  view  was  more  extensive  and 
more  beautiful.  The  windows  faced  the  south, 
and  the  whole  beauty  of  the  Brighton  front 
was  laid  open  to  us.  We  then  ascended  to 
another  storey.  The  higher  we  went,  the  more 
we  saw.  We  had  not  forgotten  the  entrance 
hall  and  the  rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  but  all 
those  were  but  experiences  at  the  back  of  the 
mind;  the  higher  we  climbed,  the  larger  grew 
our  experience.  WTe  were  led  from  room  to 
room — each  chamber,  as  it  were,  adding  to 
our  experience.  You  have  applied  the  illus- 
tration, I  doubt  not,  ere  I  have  reached  this 
point.  It  seems  to  me  that  God  leads  us  from 
room  to  room,  and  every  event  of  our  life  sup- 
plies us  with  a  key  with  which  we  can  unlock 
a  new  chamber  of  experience.  There  is  noth- 
ing that  is  accidental — nothing  that  we  can  af- 
ford to  say  is  unimportant.  God  is  always  de- 
livering to  us  the  keys  of  His  kingdom.  We 
are  passing  from  experience  to  experience, 
from  room  to  room — growing,  developing,  as 
we  are  able.  God  knows  what  is  best  for  us, 
and  as  He  calls  us,  so  He  shapes  us. 


12       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

Apply  this  to  the  life  of  the  Apostle  Peter, 
and  you  will  see  it  to  be  true.  When  Peter 
made  his  famous  affirmation,  he  had,  as  it 
were,  just  entered  the  vestibule  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  The  discovery  of  God  in  Christ 
meant  a  great  deal  to  him.  He  began  a  new 
life  from  that  very  moment:  it  had  point  and 
purpose  which  it  had  lacked  before.  He  had 
been  drawn  to  Christ — I  suppose  he  could 
hardly  have  said  why;  he  knew  Christ  now  in 
a  new  and  special  way.  In  discovering  Him, 
he  discovered  the  Father — he  entered  the  king- 
dom of  God.  For  what  is  the  kingdom  of 
God  ?  To  appropriate  the  words  of  our  Lord, 
"  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."  "  Say 
not,  Lo  here!  lo  there!  for,  behold,  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  within  you."  It  is  the  reign 
of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men.  It  is  the  reign 
of  God,  shall  we  say,  amongst  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  beginning  with  the  individual  al- 
ways. We  come  to  Him  one  by  one ;  into  the 
kingdom  we  pass  one  by  one.  We  scarcely 
know,  sometimes,  when  we  have  passed  the 
threshold;  but  that  self-discovery  which  is  at 
the  same  time  the  discovery  of  our  relation- 
ship to  God,  soon  leaves  us  in  no  doubt  where 
we  are.  When  a  man  becomes  a  member  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  knows  God  as  his  Father, 


THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM       13 

and  depends  on  Christ  as  his  Saviour,  he  has 
passed,  as  it  were,  from  death  unto  life;  hence- 
forth everything  is  new.  Who  opened  the 
door?  The  Father,  who  supplies  the  key. 
God  puts  the  key  into  the  hands  of  each  man 
by  the  particular  event  which  leads  him  to 
God,  and  with  that  he  enters  into  the  king- 
dom, and  passes  from  room  to  room  in  the 
experiences  of  the  soul. 

Shall  we  say  that  the  Apostle  Peter  was 
forthwith  perfect  after  he  made  his  famous 
affirmation?  Shall  we  say  that  you,  my 
brethren,  who  have  known  Christ,  are  prepared 
to  affirm  to-day  your  likeness  to  Him?  Are 
you  what  God  means  you  to  be?  Are  you 
what  Christ  would  like  you  to  be?  Are  you 
what  you  feel  you  ought  to  be?  There  is  no 
one  amongst  us  who  can  say  that.  We  are 
passing  from  room  to  room — ascending  from 
storey  to  storey,  from  experience  to  experience 
— looking  out  from  each  new  room  upon  the 
meaning  of  life,  learning  as  we  ascend.  There 
is  no  accident  in  all  this.  God  leads  us  from 
crisis  to  crisis — each  crisis  with  its  lesson,  each 
lesson  with  its  key. 

In  Peter's  life  I  see  three  great  crises.  Let 
us  for  our  instruction  give  a  few  minutes  to 
each. 


14       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

1.  The  crisis  of  a  great  love. 

2.  The  crisis  of  a  great  moral  failure. 

3.  (The  immediate  sequence  of  the  second) 

The  crisis  of  a  great  sorrow. 
i.  The  crisis  of  a  great  love. — No  one 
doubts  Peter's  love  for  Christ;  Christ  never 
did.  He  loved  his  Master,  and  the  very  fact 
that  he  could  love  changed  him.  We  are  like 
him.  You  are  very  poor  if  no  great  love  has 
ever  come  into  your  life.  You  are  the  better 
if  you  have  ever  given  yourself  in  love  to  any 
one.  One  has  sometimes  heard  people  mourn 
that  they  ever  had  committed  themselves  to 
a  great  love,  because  some  of  those  to  whom 
you  give  the  most  give  to  you  in  return  the 
least.  And  you  wish  that  it  were  not  so ;  you 
wish  to  excise  the  experience,  not  only  that  of 
ingratitude,  but  that  of  the  bond  of  affection 
which  united  you  with  the  loved  one.  Never 
wish  that  again.  What  you  are  to-day  you 
are  in  great  measure  because  you  have  learned 
to  love.  Do  you  regret  that  you  ever  com- 
mitted yourself  so  far  as  to  rob  yourself  of 
luxury  and  ease  and  pleasure  because  of  that 
child  who  has  not  turned  out  all  that  you  could 
wish?  Believe  me,  the  chapter  has  not  closed 
yet  by  any  means,  but  something  of  its  mean- 
ing you  can  read  already.  What  difference 


THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM        15 

has  it  made  to  you?  You  are  wiser,  kinder, 
nobler,  sweeter.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  have 
loved.  "  Say  never,  ye  *  loved  once.' '  The 
experience  is  built  into  your  soul.  God  sup- 
plied you  with  a  key  to  the  meaning  of  life 
when  He  made  you  capable  of  loving  some- 
body. Never  wish  the  experience  undone;  it 
has  helped  to  make  you.  Think  of  any  one 
who  is  incapable  of  such  an  affection.  How 
much  of  life  such  natures  miss !  They  remain 
in  the  lower  storeys;  there  is  a  vast  landscape 
hidden  from  them.  They  are  able  to  mount 
higher  just  in  proportion  as  they  are  able  to 
give  themselves  to  an  ideal.  A  great  love 
transformed  Peter;  the  power  of  love  may 
transform  you. 

2.  The  crisis  of  a  great  moral  failure. — 
Then  there  came  a  great  failure.  From  some 
points  of  view  the  most  interesting  crisis  of 
Peter's  life  was  when  he  failed  his  Master 
through  cowardice.  No  one  would  care  to 
affirm  that  Peter  did  not  love  the  Lord  whom 
he  denied;  but  Jesus  knew  he  would  deny 
Him,  because  He  knew  Peter.  Peter  did  not 
know  himself;  and  I  affirm  that  he  was  a 
better  man  immediately  after  the  act  of  denial 
than  he  was  at  the  moment  when  he  promised 
his  Master  that  he  would  never  deny  Him. 


1 6       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

We  judge  amiss  so  often  because  we  judge 
moral  offence  by  deed  rather  than  by  disposi- 
tion. It  is  possible  that  you  and  I  were  worse 
men,  worse  women,  in  hours  when  we  saw 
nothing  wrong  with  ourselves  than  we  were 
in  those  hours  of  self-contempt  that  followed 
failure.  If  there  be  a  man  in  this  congrega- 
tion this  morning  who  is  conscious  of  being  a 
moral  failure,  I  would  like  to  speak  to  that  man. 
You  are  in  great  danger,  greater  than  you 
know.  You  are  also  in  a  region  of  blessed- 
ness greater  than  you  know.  Do  you  blame 
yourself  for  sin?  It  is  not  the  deed  that  you 
call  sin  that  is  the  greatest  sin.  It  was  your 
spirit  before  you  fell  that  was  wrong.  The 
deed  only  revealed  yourself  to  yourself.  You 
were  a  failure  before  you  knew  yourself.  You 
are  in  the  region  of  blessedness  now  if  you  will 
but  have  it  so.  There  are  some  people  who 
cannot  recover  themselves  from  self -contempt. 
No  man  merits  contempt,  not  even  from  him- 
self. That  which  happened  to  you  was,  that 
God,  who  knew  you  better  than  you  knew 
yourself,  withdrew  His  hand  for  a  moment. 
You  fell — that  you  might  rise  again.  There 
was  tenderness  in  the  act  of  God  in  permitting 
you  to  know  yourself  by  the  deed  that  you  call 
sin,  but  which  might  be,  if  you  allow  it,  your 


THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM        17 

salvation.  It  is  difficult  to  bear  the  cross  of 
moral  failure.  The  valley  of  humiliation  is 
not  a  welcome  place.  The  discipline  of  fail- 
ure is  necessary  often  for  the  shaping  of  a  holy 
life.  Read  the  meaning :  take  the  key  into 
your  hand.  The  kingdom  of  God  means  the 
reign  of  God  in  your  heart,  and  this  truth  con- 
cerns you  at  this  moment  more  than  it  con- 
cerns any  one  else  in  the  world.  Never  mind 
what  any  other  person's  relation  to  God  may 
be  till  you  have  adjusted  your  own.  Say  unto 
that  which  has  overthrown  you,  "  Rejoice  not 
against  me,  O  mine  enemy!  When  I  fall,  I 
shall  arise."  It  is  the  will  of  God  that  through 
moral  failure  you  should  be  supplied  with  a 
key  to  regions  that  lie  higher  than  all  you  have 
yet  known. 

3.  The  crisis  of  a  great  sorrow. — Peter's 
third  experience  was  that  of  a  great  sorrow. 
Would  any  of  you  wish  to  change  places  with 
him  after  that  terrible  day  when  Christ  was 
crucified,  and  when,  so  far  as  Peter  knew,  He 
was  gone  from  him  for  ever.  How  he  must 
have  reproached  himself,  condemned  himself, 
that  he  was  not  braver  in  the  day  of  his  Mas- 
ter's tribulation!  He  had  forsaken  Him  to 
whom  he  had  promised  loyalty  and  affection — 
and  Jesus  was  dead!  Peter  is  not  the  only 


i8       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

person  who  has  felt  like  that.  It  must  be  a 
terrible  thing  for  some  people  to  look  back 
across  an  open  grave  and  see  what  might  have 
been.  And  how  possible  it  is  to  wish  remorse- 
fully but  vainly  that  those  who  are  gone  could 
come  back  again  for  a  moment,  that  they 
might  see  what  the  state  of  our  heart  toward 
them  really  is,  and  hear  our  word  of  contri- 
tion and  self-reproach.  But  it  cannot  be. 
They  cannot  return,  and  we — we  shall  be  mark- 
ed for  ever  by  that  cross,  that  we  cannot  undo 
for  the  dead  that  which  we  have  done,  and  we 
cannot  do  for  the  dead  that  which  we  have  left 
undone.  Truly  that  is  a  great  sorrow,  a  sorrow 
for  which  there  is  no  panacea.  Is  there  no 
panacea?  There  is  just  the  same  panacea  that 
there  was  for  Peter.  Look  for  the  meaning  of 
the  experience :  there  is  a  key  there.  The  king- 
dom of  God  extends  to  both  earth  and  Heaven. 
What  you  are  resolving  now  for  the  kingdom 
of  Heaven's  sake  is  changing  you  while  you 
resolve  it.  You  are  leaving  behind  you  some- 
what now  for  the  kingdom  of  Heaven's  sake : 
you  are  changing  as  you  leave  it.  You  are 
shaping  yourself  for  eternity.  The  binding 
and  the  loosing  is  going  on.  In  Heaven  there 
is  some  record  of  your  doings.  Christ  is  the 
medium  between  you  and  all  whom  you  have 


THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM       19 

ever  wronged.  We  have  wronged  Him  most 
in  wronging  any.  But  God  never  meant  a 
man  to  become  the  victim  of  his  own  sins. 
The  self-discovery  which  a  great  sorrow  makes 
necessary  supplies  us  with  a  new  key  to  the 
kingdom  of  God.  We  pass  into  a  new  cham- 
ber, take  a  new  view  of  life,  and  all  that  hap- 
pens to  us  henceforth  stands  in  some  relation 
to  the  experience  which  has  passed,  as  well  as 
to  that  which  is  to  come.  To  you  are  com- 
mitted the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  God — not 
all  together,  but  one  by  one,  as  Christ  com- 
mitted them  to  Peter. 

Some  of  you  have  been  called  to  pass 
through  deep  waters;  and  just  for  the  moment 
you  may  be  wondering  where  God  is,  and  why 
He  has  left  you  so  poor.  Life  seemed  rich 
but  a  few  days  ago;  it  is  very  sad  and  dreary 
now.  "  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath 
taken  away."  My  brother,  my  sister,  God  has 
given  you  a  key  to  the  kingdom  of  Heaven. 
He  has  led  you  into  a  new  room,  and  bidden 
you  look  out  upon  life  from  a  new  point.  The 
change  that  is  taking  place  in  you  may  be 
blessed — shall  be,  if  you  let  it  be;  remember- 
ing that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  only  for 
earth,  but  for  Heaven — not  only  for  time,  but 
for  eternity.  This  is  a  moment;  there  is  a 


20       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

by-and-by,  a  gathering  up  of  all  things  into 
Christ.  Learn  to  use  the  key  that  God  has 
given  you;  and  by  a  great  sorrow  rise  nearer 
to  Him. 

In  the  hills  around  Brighton  you  may  read 
the  history  of  the  world.  So  in  every  man's 
character  you  can  read  the  history  of  mankind. 
No  one  can  cross  the  Downs  without  noticing 
that  something  has  been  there  which  has  helped 
to  make  that  which  now  is.  Once  upon  a  time 
the  sea  washed  round  the  foot  of  those  cliffs 
that  we  call  the  Dyke.  This  Brighton  of  ours 
was  once  covered  deeply  with  ice  and  snow 
that  never  removed,  summer  or  winter;  there 
has  also  been  a  time  when  the  rocks  round 
about  us  were  melted  by  fervent  heat,  and  if 
you  care  to  read  the  story  of  the  crust  of  this 
little  world  of  ours  you  will  see  it  written  in  the 
cliffs — layer  upon  layer.  In  every  blade  of 
grass  there  is  latent  the  story  of  the  whole ;  lit- 
tle by  little  it  has  been  so  made.  In  every 
man's  character  there  is  latent  every  experience 
through  which  he  has  passed.  Your  memory 
may  not  be  strong  enough  to  take  you  back  to 
those  hours  when  God  was  chiselling  and  fash- 
ioning you  for  the  mood  of  this  moment;  but 
no  matter  how  weak  your  memory  is,  the 
experience  is  there;  and  however  much  you 


THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM       21 

may  wish  it  you  cannot  undo  it  without  un- 
doing what  you  are.  Latent  in  us  all  there  are 
these  experiences,  which  in  God's  providence 
succeed  each  other,  and  leave  us  the  same  no 
more.  Appropriate  this  thought.  It  brings 
great  comfort  with  it.  We  are  not  alone;  we 
are  not  ignored;  we  are  not  left  to  ourselves. 
We  are  led  from  room  to  room.  God  calls  us 
to  the  kingdom;  and  when  we  have  passed 
inside  the  door  the  keys  of  the  rooms  through 
which  we  pass  are  given  to  us  one  by  one,  and 
"  Christ  leads  us  through  no  darker  rooms  than 
He  went  through  before." 


II 

SIN-BEARING 

"  He  was  manifested  to  take  away  our  sins." 

— I.  John  Hi.,  5. 

"  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be:  but  we  know 
that,  when  He  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  Him ; 
for  we  shall  see  him  as  He  is." — I.  John  iii.,  2. 

LET  us,  first  of  all,  read  these  two  verses  in  the 
Revised  Version.  They  run  thus :  "  We  know 
that  He  was  manifested  to  take  away  sins ;  and 
in  Him  is  no  sin."  (Marginal  rendering: 
"  bear  sins."}  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
we  shall  be;  we  know  that  if  He  shall  be  man- 
ifested, we  shall  be  like  Him."  (Marginal 
rendering:  "  if  it  shall  be  manifested.") 

Let  us  now  take  these  two  sentences  in  con- 
junction, and  paraphrase  them  into  their  mean- 
ing in  modern  English.  In  the  fifth  verse  we 
read :  "  He  was  shown  forth  to  the  world  " 
— in  His  birth,  life,  death,  resurrection,  and 
His  abiding  influence  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of 
men  to-day — "  to  take  away  sins  " — or,  to  bear 


SIN-BEARING  23 

sins — "  and  in  Him  there  is  no  sin."  The  sec- 
ond verse  might  read  thus :  "  Beloved,  we  are 
now  sons  of  God,  and  it  is  not  yet  clear  what 
we  shall  be ;  but  we  know  that  when  it  is  made 
clear" — (not  "when  He  shall  appear")  — 
when  it  is  shown  forth,  when  it  is  clear  to  us 
what  we  are  intended  to  be — "  we  shall  see  we 
are  like  Him."  Now,  put  the  two  sentences  to- 
gether and  read :  "  We  shall  be  like  Him  in 
bearing  sins." 

There  is  a  dual  meaning  attached  to  one 
word  in  the  fifth  verse,  which  is  translated  in 
the  Old  Version  by  the  phrase  "  take  away." 
But  it  has  another  meaning  as  well.  The 
meaning  is  simply  "  endure,"  "  bear,"  "  carry," 
and  this  dual  meaning  ought  to  be  present  in 
our  minds  when  we  study  the  sentence  before 
us.  For  it  suggests  two  thoughts.  The  first 
is  that  there  is  a  work  of  Christ  in  relation  to 
sin  in  which  we  cannot  share;  but  the  second 
is  that  there  is  a  work  of  Christ  in  relation  to 
sin  that  we  are  called  to  share.  Christ  has  a 
relationship  to  the  world  which  no  single  in- 
dividual amongst  us  can  have;  but  likewise 
Christ,  in  redeeming  the  world,  makes  use  of 
every  life  that  is  consecrated  to  Himself. 

Let  us  consider  these  meanings.     The  most 


24       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

important  part  of  the  message  which  Christ 
brought  to  the  world,  the  most  important  part 
of  the  message  which  Christ  delivers  to  the 
world  to-day,  is  addressed  to  the  conscience 
first,  and  afterwards  to  the  reason  and  to  the 
heart.  Our  Lord's  earthly  ministry  began  with 
one  word :  "  Repent."  Then  came  the  prom- 
ise :  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand." 
Put  into  homely  language  it  is :  "  Come  to 
God — turn  to  God ;  for  God  has  come  to  you." 
It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  the  message 
to  the  conscience  which  Christ  delivered  creat- 
ed a  kind  of  obligation  on  His  part  to  satisfy 
the  need  that  He  then  awakened.  For,  once 
we  have  prevailed  upon  a  man  to  sue  for  par- 
don at  the  feet  of  the  Eternal  One,  we  have, 
as  it  seems,  stated  at  the  same  time  our  ob- 
ligation to  present  to  him  the  satisfaction  of  his 
need ;  and  it  has  always  appeared  to  those  who 
have  come  nearest  to  Christ  that  in  discover- 
ing man  to  himself,  in  awakening  within  him 
the  consciousness  of  a  need  of  a  Redeemer,  He 
at  the  same  moment  declares  His  own  obliga- 
tion to  supply  the  answer  to  that  need  in  the 
bearing  of  sin.  Many  have  never  entered  very 
deeply  into  this  aspect  of  truth,  but  some  have, 
and  to  them  I  repeat  the  message  of  the  Gos- 
pel :  "  He  was  manifested  to  take  away  sins ;  " 


SIN-BEARING  25 

and  if  you  choose  to  insert  the  epithet  of  the 
old  translators  you  may — "  our  sins."  The  re- 
sponsibility for  the  better  life  that  is  before  us, 
and  which  the  consciousness  of  guilt  might  hin- 
der us  from  ever  attempting,  rests  with  Jesus 
Christ.  It  was  never  meant  that  a  man  should 
become  the  victim  of  his  own  sins,  so  that  he 
could  not  rise  to  the  heights  of  holiness;  and 
this  glorious  Gospel,  which  bears  upon  the  face 
of  it  the  vindication  of  its  own  genuineness, 
in  that  it  satisfies  the  need  it  awakens,  comes 
to  the  world  to-day  as  the  message  of  a  Re- 
deemer who  came  to  bear  away  our  sins. 

Not  to  dwell  longer  upon  this  general  point, 
let  me  mention  one  apparent  qualification.  It 
is  that  Christ,  in  bearing  away  sins,  has  not 
removed,  or  seems  not  to  have  removed,  the 
penal  consequences  of  sin.  We  are  all  aware 
that  there  is  no  forgiveness  in  Nature;  very 
seldom  is  there  forgiveness  in  human  nature. 
No  man  sees  all  the  meaning  of  his  deeds  be- 
fore he  commits  them ;  but,  once  committed,  it 
seems  as  though  they  had  become  part  of  the 
history  of  the  universe,  and  the  consequences 
are  inexorable. 

To  take  a  gross  instance.  Suppose  that  a 
man  has  abandoned  himself  to  the  craving  for 
strong  drink  in  such  wise  that  he  has  wrecked 


26       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

his  body,  blunted  his  finer  sensibilities  of  soul. 
What  does  forgiveness  include  for  that  man? 
Why,  it  means  introducing  him  to  a  new  hell, 
of  which  even  in  his  sins  he  had  known  noth- 
ing. If  you  could  succeed  in  inducing  him  to 
believe  that  there  is  a  pardoning  God,  and  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  grace  of  God,  you 
have  but  brought  him  face  to  face  with  a  new 
struggle.  Not  a  pang  is  spared  him.  The 
craving  remains  what  it  was  before,  with  the 
exception  that  it  is  a  daily  humiliation  to  fight 
down  the  beast  within  him.  He  might  say 
to  himself  that  he  is  but  bearing  the  conse- 
quences of  his  own  sin,  that  there  is  no  one  to 
blame  but  himself,  and  that  the  Gospel  never 
provided  such  an  emancipation  in  this  life  as  he 
would  like  to  have — the  emancipation  from 
temptation. 

But  this  is  not  so.  There  is  another  way 
of  looking  at  the  spiritual  significance  of  what 
seems  to  be  the  consequence  of  our  sins.  Re- 
move the  word  penal  altogether  from  what  a 
soul  endures  that  is  being  cleansed  from  the 
presence  of  sin,  and  put  in  its  place  the  word 
discipline,  and  then  think  if  before  God  we  are 
not  all  alike.  You  who,  for  the  most  part,  have 
been  trying  all  your  life  to  serve  God,  and 
whose  progress  has  been  an  increasing  knowl- 


SIN-BEARING  27 

edge  of  Him,  whose  joy  in  communing  with 
Him  is  without  disguise,  and  who  have  a  wit- 
ness that  you  are  in  very  deed  the  sons  of  God 
— you  know,  do  you  not  ? — that  the  way  has  not 
been  altogether  a  way  freed  from  obstacles,  and 
difficulties,  and  conflicts,  and  agony  of  spirit. 
Holiness  is  always  purchased  by  these  things; 
and,  if  you  have  never  fallen  as  your  brother 
has  fallen,  all  the  same  this  sharp  lesson  of  life 
has  been  yours.  You  have  been  disciplined 
into  what  you  are.  Your  nature  has  been 
deepened,  your  heart  has  been  made  tender, 
your  outlook  upon  life  far  more  solemn,  by  the 
things  that  have  come  to  you  unsought  and  un- 
welcomed,  and  that  you  have  prayed  to  God  in 
agony  of  spirit  to  take  away  from  you. 

Now,  turn  to  the  poor  drunkard  and  say  your 
message  over  again.  Say :  "  Brother,  I 
have  my  discipline;  you  have  yours.  I  have 
my  struggle :  God  has  given  you  yours.  Re- 
member, with  thankfulness,  that  you  have  been 
digged  out  of  a  very  deep  pit  indeed,  and  con- 
tinue your  struggle  now,  not  as  the  consequence 
of  the  past,  but  as  the  discipline  which  God 
permits  you  for  the  perfecting  of  your  soul  in 
the  present  and  the  future.  Your  sin  has  been 
borne  away  long  ago.  Yours  is  the  discipline 
which  comes  to  us  all,  and  that  it  is  so  sharp 


and  so  strong  is  a  mark,  not  of  God's  anger,  but 
of  His  favour,  for  '  whom  He  loveth,  He 
chasteneth ;  and  scourgeth  every  son  whom  He 
receiveth.' ' 

But,  to  proceed  to  the  secondary  meaning 
of  our  text : — "  He  was  manifested  to  bear 
sins."  If  you  will  turn  to  St.  John  i.,  29,  you 
will  read  a  sentence  that  reminds  you  of  this 
one,  and,  in  fact,  it  is  closer  in  meaning  to  it 
than  you  would  at  first  imagine.  "  Behold, 
the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin 
of  the  world."  Now  here  the  word  is  just  the 
same  as  in  our  text.  It  is  simply  "  bear;  "  the 
weight  is  laid  upon  Him.  "  The  chastisement 
of  our  sins  was  upon  Him ;  and  with  His  stripes 
we  are  healed." 

There  is  an  aspect  of  the  work  of  Christ 
in  which  every  regenerate  soul  is  called  to 
share.  Here  are  some  ways  in  which  we  can 
apply  this  truth  to  our  souls. 

First,  let  us  recognise  that  there  is  no  man 
who  is  able  to  bear  his  own  sins.  A  very 
familiar  mode  of  expression  in  the  present  day 
is  to  this  effect :  It  is  right  for  a  man  to  have 
to  bear  the  consequences  of  what  he  has  brought 
upon  himself  by  his  own  wickedness.  A  case 
is  before  my  mind  at  the  moment,  which  I  may 
venture  to  give  you,  as  an  abstraction  rarely 


SIN-BEARING  29 

helps,  while  a  concrete  illustration  does.  I  re- 
member long  ago  being  brought  face  to  face 
with  a  most  pitiful  case  of  ruin  at  the  begin- 
ning of  manhood.  A  young  man  had  fallen 
into  bad  habits,  and,  by  the  influence  of  others, 
had  become  a  victim  to  the  gambling  mania. 
He  had  gone  so  far  as  to  tamper  with  his  em- 
ployer's money.  Then  the  question  for  his 
friends  was,  what  was  to  be  done?  One  of 
his  friends  said  (and,  I  think,  charitably),  that 
the  best  thing  to  be  done  was  to  leave  him  to 
the  consequences  of  his  own  folly.  It  was  then 
asked  what  the  consequences  would  be,  and  the 
reply  was  that  it  was  to  be  feared  that  they 
would  mean  imprisonment,  and,  for  the  pres- 
ent at  any  rate,  ruin  in  the  eyes  of  his  circle 
of  friends.  When  it  was  asked  why  it  was 
considered  desirable  that  the  culprit  should  suf- 
fer so  much,  the  reply  given  was  that  it 
was  because  he  did  not  see  his  own  responsi- 
bility as  he  should,  and  he  was  not  ashamed  of 
his  sin,  but  merely  afraid  of  exposure:  his 
spirit  was  wrong.  Well,  as  things  have  turn- 
ed out,  that  friend  was  right.  The  spirit  of 
the  culprit  was  wrong ;  it  was  simply  cowardly. 
He  managed  to  shun  for  the  moment  the  awk- 
ward consequences  of  his  own  behaviour;  he 
did  not  have  to  endure  the  exposure,  nor,  what 


30       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

would  have  mattered  very  much  less,  the  ac- 
tual imprisonment;  but  I  do  not  think  he  was 
cured.  But  if  he  had  been  disgraced  in  the 
eyes  of  society,  the  wife  and  child  would  have 
been  ruined  as  well  as  he,  for  they,  who  were 
totally  innocent  and  ignorant  of  it  all,  would 
have  been  disgraced  for  evermore,  and  the  poor 
little  one  would  have  entered  into  life  sadly 
handicapped.  Could  it  be  said  that,  in  allow- 
ing that  man  to  endure  the  penalty  of  his  sin, 
he  was  expiating  it  by  himself?  By  no  means. 
No  man  sinneth  to  himself. 

To  take  yet  another  truth.  I  should  say 
that  behind  every  case  of  moral  failure  there 
is  a  responsibility  which  cannot  be  placed  upon 
the  right  shoulders  by  anyone  but  God.  When 
I  hear  of  a  man  having  fallen,  I  am  tempted 
to  inquire  how  many  persons  have  contributed 
to  that  fall;  and,  perhaps,  if  we  were  able  to 
trace  the  matter  to  its  original  sources,  it  would 
be  found  that  some  who  are  most  earnest  in 
serving  God,  and  most  anxious  for  His  glory, 
are  included  in  the  number  of  those  who  are 
responsible.  Have  you  ever  been  conscious 
that  you  were  doing  harm  to  someone  by  the 
very  flippancy  of  your  demeanour — by  your 
off-hand  behaviour  in  a  certain  crisis  of  his 
career?  What  seemed  to  be  your  life  was  on 


SIN-BEARING  31 

the  surface — the  careless,  or  cynical,  or  world- 
ly, or  censorious  side  of  your  character — and 
by  it  you  injured  the  moral  susceptibilities  of 
another  who  stood  near  you,  and  into  the  fab- 
ric of  his  responsibility  entered  a  part  of  yours. 
There  is  no  man  that  falleth  by  himself.  There 
are  a  thousand  agencies  that  have  contributed 
to  make  him  what  he  is  when  the  crisis  comes ; 
and  none  of  us  who  know  ourselves  truly 
would  dare  to  point  the  finger  of  scorn.  Per- 
haps by  what  we  have  been  and  done,  and  by 
what  we  have  not  been  and  done,  we  have  con- 
tributed to  the  fall  of  a  brother,  who,  in  the 
sight  of  God,  has  not  fallen  alone.  No  man 
should  bear  the  full  responsibility  for  his  own 
sins. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  to  fall  back 
upon  the  great  promise  that  He  who  is  the  Life 
of  the  world,  the  Fount  of  all  compassion,  is 
sufficient  for  these  things,  and  we  are  not.  It 
is  not  the  province  of  the  preacher  to  explain 
how,  but  simply  to  say  that  so  it  is.  Happily 
for  us  who  feel  ourselves  to  be  guilty  in  the 
sight  of  God  for  other  men's  failures,  there 
is  a  compensation  to  be  found — not  in  human 
nature,  but  in  the  Divine  that  is  human — Jesus 
Christ  our  Saviour. 

There  are  yet  other  instances  in  which  we 


32       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

share  with  the  Sin-bearer.  Let  me  give  you 
one  or  two  that  are  apparent  to  all,  and  then 
leave  you  to  apply  the  truth  yourselves  to  cases 
that  are  not  so  apparent.  Do  you  remember 
the  dying  words  of  Savonarola,  who  paid  with 
his  life  the  penalty  of  his  magnificent  attempt 
to  establish  the  City  of  God  in  wicked  Flor- 
ence? One  day  he  was  addressing  a  crowd  in 
the  Duomo ;  another  day  he  was  led  in  disgrace 
to  the  stake,  amid  the  hoots  of  those  who  had 
been  hanging  upon  his  words  but  a  little  time 
before.  George  Eliot  put  into  his  mouth 
words  that  give  the  experience  of  every  true 
martyr,  whether  he  be  crucified  before  the  gaze 
of  mankind  or  in  silence  and  shadow :  "  I 
count  as  nothing;  darkness  encompasses  me; 
yet  the  light  I  saw  was  the  true  light."  Rein- 
zi,  the  last  of  the  Roman  tribunes,  at  the  last 
moment  would  have  saved  himself  from  the 
fury  of  the  rabble.  He  recognised  in  the  hour 
of  his  failure  that  he  who  would  serve  must 
suffer,  and  that  sometimes  it  seems  as  though 
the  service  were  not  worth  while.  "  I  am 
greater  than  Rome,"  he  said,  as  he  fell  a  vic- 
tim to  the  people  he  had  saved.  Martin  Lu- 
ther, in  his  grand  affirmation,  "  Here  stand  I : 
I  can  none  other :  so  help  me  God !  "  under- 
stood what  it  was  to  suffer  vicariously.  He 


SIN-BEARING  33 

was  bearing  a  burden  not  his  own.  God  sav- 
ed him,  but  he  knew  what  it  was  even  in  life  to 
be  crucified;  for  those  who  get  beneath  the 
triumph  of  the  great  reformer  discern  at  what 
a  soul  agony  it  was  purchased.  Latimer,  at 
the  stake  in  Oxford,  declared  the  same  truth: 
"  Be  of  good  cheer,  Master  Ridley !  We  shall 
this  day,  by  the  grace  of  God,  light  such  a  can- 
dle in  England  as  shall  never  be  put  out." 
The  suffering  servant  of  God  was  bearing  sins 
not  his  own.  The  accumulation  of  the  guilt 
of  the  world  seems  to  fall  upon  these  royal 
ones  who  live  and  serve  in  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
So  it  always  has  been ;  so  it  always  will  be. 
The  sin-bearers  of  the  world,  the  saviours  of 
the  world,  are  joined  in  spirit  unto  Him  who 
agonised  in  Gethsemane  and  died  upon  Cal- 
vary. 

Now,  to  pass  from  these  dramatic  scenes  of 
history  to  our  more  common  life.  Some  of 
you,  not  very  willingly  it  may  be,  are  sin-bear- 
ers. I  think  of  you,  a  husband,  who  have  to 
bear  the  frailties  of  a  wife  whom  you  took 
for  better  or  for  worse.  You  bear  the  burden 
and  you  say  nothing  about  it ;  you  are  the  brav- 
er and  the  truer  and  the  nobler  for  it.  I  think 
of  the  wife  who  appears  not  in  public  service, 
but  who  is  the  strength  of  the  husband  who 


34       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

does;  who  sacrifices  herself  every  day  with 
cheerfulness  of  spirit  to  brace  him  for  the  stern 
conflict,  and  knows  what  it  is,  perhaps,  to  keep 
to  herself  a  certain  sorrow  that  has  made  her 
what  she  is.  Every  power  for  good  is  pur- 
chased by  soul  agony.  Where  wrong  has  been 
done  to  you;  where  you  have  been  misunder- 
stood ;  where  you  have  been  wounded  in  spirit ; 
where  your  deserts  have  been  ignored  by  the 
world  that  is  round  about  you — learn  your  les- 
son. So  it  always  has  been;  and  we  shall  be 
like  Him  when  we  see  Him  as  He  is.  You 
are  accounted  fortunate,  perhaps,  that  there  are 
so  many  who  carry  your  burden;  and  yet  you 
carry  not  only  your  own,  but  others'.  Some- 
times you  feel  rebellious;  you  wish  it  could 
be  otherwise — that  it  were  possible  for  the 
truth  about  your  life  to  become  known  to  men, 
who  would  then  interpret  you  better.  Never 
wish  it  any  more.  It  is  just  as  it  should  be; 
and  when  the  purpose  of  it  all  shall  appear,  we 
shall  see  that  we  are  like  Him — sin-bearers. 

Every  tragedy  in  the  home  circle,  every  hour 
of  agony  through  which  you  pass,  every  wrong 
that  you  must  endure  in  silence — for  there  is 
no  redress  upon  this  side  of  the  grave — is  not 
purposeless  or  accidental.  It  is  a  great  privi- 


SIN-BEARING  35 

lege  to  which  you  are  called — the  high  preroga- 
tive of  suffering.  Some  day  we  shall  see  the 
meaning  of  it  all,  and  never  regret  a  moment 
of  it.  You  remember  the  incident  in  "  Middle- 
march,"  of  that  leader  of  society — part  of  it 
religious  society — who  had  obtained  his  world- 
ly success  by  a  means  that  he  dare  not  own. 
He  had  been  the  ruin  of  a  poor  old  widow 
woman.  Her  gold  became  his :  the  whole  fab- 
ric of  his  after  influence  was  built  upon  a  crime. 
The  day  of  exposure  came — it  had  to  come — 
and  on  that  day  his  wife  uttered  no  word  of 
reproach,  nor  was  she  vehement  in  his  de- 
fence, nor  did  she  torture  him  by  telling  him 
what  she  meant  to  do.  She  left  the  room,  and 
came  back  without  any  of  her  rich  robes,  dress- 
ed in  plain  and  simple  black,  as  befitted  a  new 
condition.  She  said  in  demeanour  that  was 
stronger  than  speech :  "I  have  come  to  share 
your  shame."  Up  to  that  time  he  was  not 
sure  whether  she  could  stand  by  him ;  but  that 
one  act  broke  him  down :  she  was  bearing  his 
sin.  In  daily  life  we  find  such  opportunities 
still.  Whether  it  be  in  secret  trial  or  in  open 
shame,  it  is  our  privilege  to  be  sin-bearers. 
Christ  summons  us  to  a  fellowship  holy  and 
august.  Shall  we  shrink  from  the  trial  ?  May 


36       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

we  all  live  so  that  when  at  last  the  day  of 
revelation  comes,  we  may  be  of  the 

Choir  invisible 

Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 

In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence. 


Ill 

THE  SELF-REVELATION  OF  JESUS 

John  i.,  35-51. 

A  LITTLE  time  ago  a  well-known  preacher,  de- 
claring his  own  experience  and  doing  his  best 
to  move  his  hearers  to  a  more  solemn  appre- 
hension of  spiritual  truth,  said,  "  It  is  not  the 
preaching  of  Christ,  not  eloquence,  not  earnest- 
ness, not  spiritual  experience,  not  even  the  liv- 
ing of  a  good  life,  that  brings  men  to  a  saving 
knowledge  of  Christ — it  is  Christ  Himself." 
The  statement  arrested  me  at  once,  because  I 
felt  that,  thought  it  might  be  somewhat  exag- 
gerated, yet  it  was  the  basal  truth  upon  which 
all  spiritual  life  exists — the  self-revelation  of 
Jesus. 

The  great  need  of  to-day  is  that  of  a  near 
vision  of  Jesus.  The  longer  I  live  the  more 
am  I  convinced  that  men  do  want  to  see  Jesus. 
They  do  not  want  many  propositions  about 


38       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

Christianity,  except  those  propositions  about 
God  which  are  to  be  found  in  our  experience 
of  Christ.  When  we  seek  spiritual  satisfaction, 
each  of  us  along  the  line  of  our  own  needs  and 
expressing  our  own  nature,  we  are  seeking 
really  for  a  revelation  of  Jesus.  It  is  very 
remarkable  that  this  should  be  so,,  in  our  own 
day  especially,  because  it  shows  how  complete- 
ly victorious  is  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  over 
every  other  part  of  his  nature.  Every  asser- 
tion of  the  highest  in  us  is  an  appeal  for 
Jesus. 

When  we  compare  our  own  day  with  what 
have  been  called  (I  know  not  with  how  much 
exactness)  the  ages  of  faith,  we  are  struck,  in 
spite  of  outward  differences,  with  the  similari- 
ty of  the  experience  of  Christ  which  prevailed 
then  and  prevails  now.  When  you  are  reading 
the  pages  of  Thomas  a  Kempis  you  feel  your- 
self in  some  degree  in  another  world,  an  entire- 
ly new  environment,  but  the  experience  that 
lies  at  the  back  of  it,  the  experience  of 
Christ,  is  precisely  the  same  as  that  of  any 
saint  of  God  in  this  place  to-day;  the  reverent 
familiarity  with  Jesus  which  was  the  note  and 
characteristic  of  the  ages  of  faith  is  reproduced 
now,  and  where  it  is  not  reproduced  it  is  sought 


THE    SELF-REVELATION    OF    JESUS    39 

after  as  much  as  in  the  days  of  Thomas  a 
Kempis.  The  great  need  of  the  present  day  is 
to  bring  men  back  to  Jesus.  Let  me  ask  you, 
then,  to  revise  what  you  already  know  of  the 
process  that  has  given  us  Jesus. 

It  is  not  so  very  many  years  ago  that  Christ 
was,  so  to  speak,  rediscovered — not  the  Christ 
of  faith,  but  the  Jesus  of  actual  history.  The 
ecclesiastical  Christ  has  nearly  disappeared. 
There  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
when  Jesus  was  lost  sight  of  because  the  Second 
Person  in  the  Trinity  occupied  a  place  so  con- 
spicuous. And  then  came  a  tendency,  which 
is  now,  I  think,  spending  itself,  to  rediscover 
the  actual  Christ  as  He  lived  and  walked  and 
talked  in  the  days  of  His  flesh;  and  as  Dr. 
Fairbairn  has  said  very  pithily,  though  that 
rediscovery  of  Jesus  meant  for  us  a  new  begin- 
ning in  many  ways,  it  cannot  add  anything  to 
our  actual  experience  of  the  Christ  of  faith. 
We  have  come  very  near  to  the  historical  Je- 
sus; we  see  Him  now  as  He  seemed  to  the 
fishermen  of  Galilee;  we  recognise  His  win- 
someness,  His  tenderness,  His  compelling  pow- 
er, His  authority ;  but  we  know  no  more  really 
of  the  spiritual  loveliness  of  Christ  than  St. 
Bernard  or  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  Christ  has 
for  us,  as  He  had  for  them,  the  religious  value 


40       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

of  God.  We  identify  Him  with  the  best  that 
we  know  of  the  Divine  nature.  He  is  the  sat- 
isfaction of  our  souls  at  their  highest;  He  can 
deal  with  human  misery  and  weakness  and 
pain.  We  ask  to-day,  as  they  asked  in  the 
long  ago,  "  Let  us  see  Jesus." 

Then,  how  are  we  to  obtain  any  clearer 
vision  of  Jesus  ?  The  thought  may  be  shaping 
itself  in  your  mind  while  I  speak,  "  By  going 
straight  to  the  Holy  Book."  Here  He  is  mir- 
rored for  us.  No  one  going  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment for  the  first  time  could  be  other  than  ar- 
rested by  the  picture  that  its  pages  present  of 
the  Jesus  of  history.  Nothing  precisely  like 
Him  has  ever  been  seen.  His  uniqueness  is 
demonstrated  by  our  increasing  knowledge  of 
what  He  did  in  the  days  of  His  flesh.  But 
do  you  think  that  we  go  to  the  Bible  for  our 
first-hand  knowledge  of  Christ  ?  I  am  not  pre- 
pared to  say  that  it  could  not  be  so,  but  I 
think  I  am  right  in  saying  that  I  have  never 
found  it  to  be  so.  Our  knowledge  of  Christ 
is  not  a  book  knowledge.  The  Bible,  giving 
it  the  utmost  prominence  that  you  can,  and 
the  greatest  reverence,  does  not  bring  you  to 
Christ.  It  feeds  your  nature  when  you  have 
found  Him;  it  supplements  your  spiritual  ex- 
perience as  you  grow  like  Him ;  but  you  do  not 


THE    SELF-REVELATION    OF    JESUS    41 

go  to  Christ,  the  greater  number  of  you,  by  the 
medium  of  Holy  Scripture;  there  is  something 
else,  a  something  which  I  shall  try  to  demon- 
strate to  you. 

A  returned  missionary  tells  a  story  of  a 
Hindu  convert  whom  he  discovered  living  by 
himself  where  few  white  men  ever  passed.  It 
appeared  that  this  man  had  come  into  posses- 
sion of  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
Jesus  of  the  Gospels  attracted  him;  he  became 
a  Christian  without  knowing  what  the  name 
Christian  really  meant — that  is  to  say,  he  did 
not  call  himself  a  Christian ;  he  simply  came  to 
believe  in  Christ.  He  retired  from  the  society 
of  his  fellows — in  fact,  he  was  expelled;  he 
lived  quietly  and  humbly  in  a  hut  in  the  forest 
by  himself,  feeding  his  spiritual  life  by  what 
he  got  from  the  Gospels  and  nothing  else. 
The  story  was  exceedingly  simple.  The  Jesus 
of  the  Gospels  had  won  his  attention.  "  I 
assured  him,"  said  the  missionary,  "  of  what 
Jesus  had  been  to  me.  Before  I  left  him  I 
tried  to  make  him  understand  the  present  Christ 
rather  than  the  Christ  of  the  past  who  gave  to 
us  a  new  vision  of  God.  I  revealed  to  him  out 
of  my  own  spiritual  stores  what  I  knew  of  my 
own  Saviour,  and  that  man  was  not  only  con- 
firmed in  his  faith,  but  rose  to  a  new  spiritual 


42       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

level  through  what  he  learned  from  my  ex- 
perience of  the  living  Christ."  Great  as  was 
the  arresting  power  of  what  that  Hindu  found 
in  the  Gospels,  it  took  another  altitude  when 
he  discovered  the  living  Christ,  revealed  first  in 
the  experience  of  another,  and  then  in  the  wit- 
ness within. 

Would  you  say,  then,  that  we  come  to  Christ 
from  what  we  see  of  Him  in  the  lives  and  the 
experience  of  other  men?  Is  it  sufficient  to 
live  the  good  life?  It  has  its  value.  You  re- 
member the  story  of  the  young  man  who  was 
sent  to  John  Keble  to  learn  Catholic  truth,  as 
it  was  called?  He  was  a  man  who  would  not 
have  been  convinced  by  Keble's  arguments, 
though  the  person  who  sent  him  to  Keble  sent 
him  as  to  a  Christian  apologist.  Keble  was 
silent,  he  simply  lived;  and  before  that  man 
left  his  company  he  was  not  only  a  Christian, 
but  an  Anglo-Catholic.  He  left  behind  him 
all  the  questions  he  had  brought:  Keble's  life 
was  the  greatest  apologetic  he  had  ever  read. 
I  do  not  think  that  it  would  make  me  an  Anglo- 
Catholic,  but  it  might  bring  me  to  Christ.  The 
witness  of  a  good  life  is  a  great  thing,  but  it 
does  not  meet  the  whole  range  of  experience. 
Tauler,  the  author  of  the  Theologica  Germani- 
ca,  says  somewhere  that  sometimes  the  best  of 


THE    SELF-REVELATION    OF    JESUS    43 

men  mistake  the  best  of  men.  That  is  true, 
and  I  think  it  is  in  the  good  purpose  of  God 
that  it  should  be  so ;  that  God  may  be  sufficient 
for  the  best  that  is  in  man,  that  He  should  be 
our  closest  Friend,  our  real  Guide,  our 
Strength,  our  Sustainer.  God  Himself  is  the 
compensation  for  human  misunderstanding. 
A  strange  thing  it  is  that  by  our  very  limita- 
tions we  withhold  from  one  another  that  sym- 
pathy and  respect  without  which  it  might  be 
supposed  spiritual  life  could  not  be  sustained. 
And  the  power  of  a  good  life  is  not  always 
manifest.  Goodness  is  usually  its  own  vindi- 
cation, but  not  always,  for  holiness  is  not  in- 
variably self-evident.  We  cannot  live  abso- 
lutely and  entirely  so  as  to  be  certain  of  wit- 
nessing for  Christ. 

From  these  considerations,  we  come  very 
naturally  to  the  record  that  we  have  of  the 
manifestations  of  Jesus  in  this  first  chapter  of 
St.  John's  Gospel.  The  first  to  announce  Him 
was  John  the  Baptist,  His  forerunner  and  her- 
ald. He  declared,  without  stopping  to  prove, 
"  Behold,  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world !  "  to  all  those  who  heard 
him ;  to  all  those  who  had  followed  him  in  the 
hope  of  getting  a  glimpse  into  a  higher  and  a 
nobler  life — just  as  you  and  I  do  to-day:  we 


44       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

listen  to  anyone  who  can  open  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven.  And  two  of  those  who  heard  him 
turned  and  followed  Jesus.  "  What  seek  ye?  " 
said  the  seeming  peasant  of  Galilee.  "  Mas- 
ter," was  the  reply,  "  where  dwellest  Thou  ?  " 
"  Come  and  see,"  was  the  answer,  and  they 
abode  with  Him  that  same  night.  Next  day 
they  separated — the  one  of  them  is  Andrew, 
the  other  is  clearly  John,  though  he  does  not 
say  so — each  to  bear  his  witness  to  the  new 
discovery.  First,  Andrew  findeth  his  own 
brother,  Simon,  and  saith  unto  him,  "  We  have 
found  the  Messiah."  Peter  came  to  Jesus. 
Mark,  the  declaration  is  in  every  case  the  same ; 
the  introduction  is  pretty  much  the  same;  but 
the  way  in  which  Jesus  deals  with  every  sepa- 
rate one  is  in  every  single  case  different.  Peter 
came,  and  Jesus,  looking  into  his  nature,  said, 
"  You,  the  impulsive,  the  wayward,  the  un- 
steady, the  victim  of  your  own  moods;  you, 
the  weak  and  unreliable,  shall  be  called  a 
rock."  Peter's  secret  thought  was  penetrated 
there.  It  was  what  he  wanted  to  be,  and  Christ 
understood  him,  and  he  accepted  Christ.  He 
would  need  no  more  witness  of  Andrew  or 
James.  He  had  found  the  Messiah;  the  Per- 
son who  understood  him,  and  answered  him 
along  the  line  of  his  own  need.  And  the  most 


THE    SELF-REVELATION    OF    JESUS    45 

interesting  case  of  all,  perhaps,  was  that  of  the 
introduction  of  Nathanael.  Philip  findeth  Na- 
thanael,  and  saith  unto  him,  "  We  have  found 
the  Messiah."  Nathanael,  the  contemplative, 
the  retired,  the  spiritually-minded,  asks  him, 
"  Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ?  " 
Philip's  answer  is,  "  Come  and  see !  "  He 
spent  no  time  in  demonstrating — he  declared. 
And  at  our  Lord's  first  words,  Nathanael  asks, 
"  Whence  knowest  Thou  me  ?  "  not  heartily, 
I  am  sure,  but  questioningly.  "  Before  that 
Philip  called  thee,  when  thou  wast  under  the 
fig-tree,  I  saw  thee."  What  was  the  reason 
of  Nathanael's  response  to  that  reply,  "  Thou 
art  the  Son  of  God ;  Thou  art  the  King  of  Is- 
rael ?  "  I  will  tell  you.  It  was  because  of 
what  Jesus  suggested  rather  than  what  Jesus 
said.  Nathanael  was  instantly  aware  that  the 
witness  of  Philip  had  been  preceded  by  the 
summons  of  Jesus,  for  Philip  did  not  know 
what  Nathanael  was  doing  under  the  fig-tree. 
He  was  praying  doubtless.  "  Under  the  fig- 
tree,"  simply  means  the  home.  This  Israelite 
was  praying  at  home  for  the  vision  of  God 
which  was  granted  to  him  in  the  Messiah. 
Jesus  penetrated  his  secret  thoughts  just  as  He 
had  penetrated  the  thoughts  of  Peter.  The 
ambassador  was  forgotten ;  Philip  stood  on  one 


46       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

side,  and  Nathanael  felt  himself  answered. 
"  Before  that  Philip  called  thee — when  them 
wast  praying  in  the  secret  place,  /  saw  thee. 
Thou  shalt  see  greater  things  than  these. 
Thou  shalt  see  heaven  open.  This  is  but  the 
vestibule  of  a  great  experience.  Thou  shalt 
see  heaven  open,  and  the  angels  of  God  as- 
cending and  descending  upon  the  Son  of  Man." 
What  took  place  from  this  time  forth  between 
Nathanael  and  Jesus  we  do  not  know.  He 
appears  in  the  last  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gos- 
pel as  he  appears  in  the  first.  He  never  was 
very  far  away  from  the  side  of  the  Teacher. 
He  had  found  Him,  and  in  finding  Him  had 
a  new  vision  of  God.  He  had  found  Him, 
and  in  a  degree  had  found  himself.  He  had 
found  Jesus  by  Jesus'  own  self-revelation,  just 
as  we  have  to  find  Jesus  in  these  days  too. 

And  now  to  develop  that  thought  by  way 
of  application. 

Let  me  say  then,  in  the  first  place,  to  those 
who  are  thinking  of  this  great  subject :  recog- 
nise Christ  as  present  in  your  desire  for  Christ. 
Everything  that  has  hitherto  gone  before  in 
your  acquaintance  with  Christ  is  just  a  witness 
and  a  testimony.  There  is  the  witness  of  good 
lives,  and  then  the  witness  of  declared  truth, 
which  may  be  the  Holy  Book.  But  all  these 


THE    SELF-REVELATION    OF    JESUS    47 

things  are  as  nothing  compared  with  your  own 
desire  for  Christ.  Why  is  it  that  you  thrill 
and  respond  when  you  hear  a  spiritual  truth 
that  you  appropriate  for  yourself?  Because  it 
was  applied  to  your  soul,  not  by  the  preacher, 
but  by  the  Lord.  Many  a  man  has  taken  out 
of  a  sermon  what  was  never  put  into  it.  God 
does  not  always  take  His  ambassadors  into  His 
confidence.  Many  a  person  has  been  conscious 
of  a  craving  for  God,  and  come  to  the  person 
that  he  thought  could  understand  him,  but  the 
second  message  was  not  like  the  first.  What 
was  the  reason  ?  Because  God  was  in  the  first, 
speaking  to  your  heart  without  telling  the  am- 
bassador anything  about  it.  Christ  declares 
Himself  in  your  own  desire,  in  your  craving 
for  Him.  Think  of  the  apologetic  value  of  a 
man's  desire  for  God.  Nearly  every  person 
who  has  ever  spoken  to  me  about  Christ  want- 
ed Christ,  not  because  of  any  immediate  advan- 
tage, but  to  be  at  rest,  to  be  at  home,  and  to 
be  right.  Christ  holds  the  secret  of  all  things, 
and  that  is  why  sinful  and  suffering  men  and 
women  come  to  Him  in  these  days  as  they 
came  in  the  days  of  His  flesh. 

But,  further,  Christ  is  revealed  in  the  appeal 
to  Himself.  We  appeal  too  much  to  other 
men's  witness  of  Him.  We  find  him  frequent- 


48       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

ly  in  our  withdrawal  from  the  witness  of  men. 
Cannot  you  think — those  of  you  whose  knowl- 
edge of  Him  is  very  slender,  but  whose  desire 
for  Him  is  very  great — that  Christ  deals  with 
you  individually,  just  as  He  dealt  with  Peter 
and  Philip  and  Nathanael,  and  that  no  person 
can  really  help  you  beyond  the  threshold  of  the 
kingdom  of  God?  You  must  find  Him  for 
yourself — heart  to  heart,  face  to  face;  for 
Christ  reveals  Himself  in  the  appeal  direct  to 
Christ.  That  effort  and  act  of  faith  is  worth 
the  while  of  any  man.  Speak  to  Jesus  Him- 
self; He  is  the  author  of  everything  that  is 
best  in  you;  He  preaches  His  own  sermons, 
takes  His  own  texts,  answers  His  own  ques- 
tions. Christ  knows  what  is  in  man ;  and  you, 
who  are  already  His  own,  are  present  in  His 
heart. 

And,  again,  Christ  is  witnessed  in  your  own 
peculiar  need.  Nothing  is  more  common  than 
the  habit  in  which  we  seem  to  take  for  granted 
that  our  way  of  looking  at  spiritual  truth  is 
the  way  in  which  every  other  man  will.  Every 
preacher,  I  suppose,  receives  a  vast  amount  of 
theological  advice,  and  it  is  always  on  the  line 
of  individual  experience.  The  amateur  theolo- 
gian says,  "  Why  don't  you  preach  the  Gospel 
in  such  a  way?  This  and  that  declaration  of 


THE    SELF-REVELATION    OF    JESUS    49 

Christ  is  sufficient  in  itself."  But  those  who 
know  better  recognise,  as  Dr.  Robertson  Nicoll 
says,  the  tremendous  difficulty  as  well  as  sim- 
plicity of  believing.  Doctors  say  that  every 
case  of  sickness  is  different  from  every  other, 
and  that  when  they  know  their  profession  best 
they  theorise  least  and  observe  most.  In  spirit- 
ual things  we  are  all  different,  because  God 
has  made  us  so,  and  when  we  answer  to  the 
Divine  call  within  ourselves,  we  begin  to  climb 
the  steeps  guided  by  the  hand  of  Christ  alone. 
Christ  is  witnessed  in  our  own  individual,  pe- 
culiar needs.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  pseudo- 
spirituality  in  the  world,  a  kind  of  craving  for 
God  which  rises  no  higher  than  a  feeble  desire 
for  friendship  and  converse  with  the  Strongest. 
"  The  bruised  reed  will  He  not  break,  and 
smoking  flax  will  He  not  quench."  If  the  feel- 
ing is  no  higher  than  that,  perhaps  it  is  enough 
for  Jesus.  We  have  found  the  Friend  that 
comforteth,  the  Saviour,  the  satisfaction  of  our 
souls.  Try  Him  along  that  line  of  your  own 
needs.  Appeal  to  the  Christ  Himself,  and  not 
to  all  our  witness  of  Christ.  If  the  way  to 
peace  is  to  be  simple  and  easy  for  you,  He  will 
make  it  so,  for  we  cannot. 

One  of  the  great  dangers  of  the  spiritual  life 
is  mental  vagueness ;  and  one  of  the  great  dan- 


50      THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

gers  of  the  mental  life  is  spiritual  apathy. 
Give  way  to  neither,  but  let  your  own  need 
witness,  and  leave  to  Jesus  the  task  of  saving 
you.  For  my  experience  teaches  me  that  it  is 
well  to  leave  to  God  more  and  more  to  do, 
and  to  men  less  and  less.  God  can  do  for 
you  just  what  you  need  should  be  done.  If  it 
is  not  possible  to  take  hold  by  faith,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  ask  for  the  faith  to  take  hold.  Every 
obstacle  of  which  you  'are  conscious,  and  which 
other  men  do  not  see  at  all,  will  be  removed — 
not  by  what  somebody  tells  you,  but  by  what 
God  does  for  you.  Recognise  that  there  must 
be  a  solution  of  every  difficulty  of  which  every 
man  is  conscious;  that  it  is  no  delusion  to  be- 
lieve that  some  have  stood  on  the  heights  with 
God.  And  if  the  obstacles  are  taken  away  that 
seem  so  insuperable  to  you,  they  will  be  re- 
moved by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  wit- 
nessing for  the  Christ  already  in  your  heart. 
Jesus  is  already  speaking  with  you.  Seek  for 
Him  in  your  own  heart  and  you  will  find  Him 
there. 


IV 

THE  PROMISE  OF  THE  COMFORTER 

"  And  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  He  shall  give  you 
another  Comforter,  that  He  may  abide  with  you  for 
ever ;  even  the  Spirit  of  Truth ;  whom  the  world 
cannot  receive,  because  it  seeth  Him  not,  neither 
knoweth  him ;  but  ye  know  Him ;  for  he  dwelleth 
with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you.  I  will  not  leave  you 
comfortless.  I  will  come  to  you." — John  xiv. ,  15-18. 

THERE  are  many  ways  in  which  men  think  and 
speak  of  the  person  and  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  For  instance,  some  persons  of  a  cer- 
tain mental  training  cannot  think  of  God  at  all 
without  thinking  of  Him  somewhat  in  the 
terms  that  have  become  familiar  to  Christian 
thought,  as  the  Trinity  in  Unity,  the  society  in 
unity,  or,  as  the  Shorter  Catechism  has  it, 
"  There  are  three  Persons  in  one  God ;  the  same 
in  substance,  equal  in  power  and  glory."  Not 
many  people,  however,  I  should  suppose,  think 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  this  way,  as  the  third 
Person  in  the  Trinity,  or  are  ever  troubled 
about  the  difficulty  of  thinking  of  the  Divine 


52       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

Being  as  lonely,  impassive,  far  away ;  One  who 
cannot  contain  within  Himself  the  relations 
which,  so  far  as  we  know,  go  to  make  life  per- 
fect. We  think  of  the  Holy  Spirit  far  less  as 
a  necessity  of  thought  than  as  an  emanation  of 
God.  Nevertheless,  we  will  leave  for  the  mo- 
ment the  statement  of  the  creed  of  Christen- 
dom, and  come  to  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  as 
we  have  it  in  the  words  of  our  text. 

In  the  verse  before  us  we  have  the  Holy 
Spirit  promised  as  the  Comforter,  or  the  Para- 
clete. Let  us  consider  the  promise  clause  by 
clause. 

"  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  He  shall  give 
you  another  Comforter."  The  word  used  here 
for  "  pray  "  is  not  a  usual  one  with  our  Lord, 
and  never  employed  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John, 
save  in  a  connection  like  the  present,  where 
the  Son  is  represented  as  speaking  to  the 
Father.  It  tends  to  convey  the  thought  of  an 
equal  addressing  an  equal,  or  of  someone  in 
another  person's  confidence  presenting  his  de- 
sire to  that  person.  It  reads  thus,  "  I  will 
make  request,"  or,  "  I  will  present  your  re- 
quest to  the  Father,"  "  and  He  shall  give  you 
another  Comforter." 

"  He  shall  give  you   another   Comforter." 


PROMISE    OF    THE    COMFORTER       53 

The  word  rendered  here  as  "  Comforter  "  is 
not  always  so  rendered.  In  the  margin  it  is 
rendered  "  Advocate."  We  will  pass  over  any 
discussion  as  to  the  change,  or  the  interpreta- 
tion of  this  alternative,  because  I  do  not  think 
that  it  is  so  familiar  to  Christian  experience  as 
the  word  for  which  it  has  been  substituted. 
"  I  will  give  you  another  Consoler."  Even 
that  is  not  the  whole  thought,  tender  and  beau- 
tiful as  it  is.  The  Comforter  really  means  the 
Helper,  the  Strengthener,  the  Strong  Friend; 
and  when  our  Lord  says,  "  I  will  give  you 
another  Comforter,"  He  is  referring  in  a  man- 
ner to  Himself.  "  I  have  been,"  He  was  say- 
ing in  effect,  "  the  Teacher,  the  Helper,  the  un- 
failing Friend.  Your  hearts  are  filled  with  sor- 
row at  this  very  moment  because  I  speak  of 
going  from  you.  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and 
He  shall  give  you  another  Comforter,  who 
shall  do  the  same  things."  In  our  old  Eng- 
lish tongue  the  word  Comforter  did  not  mean 
exactly  what  it  means  at  the  present  day;  its 
content  was  rather  larger.  You  will  find  in 
the  best  of  our  older  literature  the  word  "  com- 
forter "  employed  again  and  again  in  the  sense 
of  Strengthener.  In  the  Latin  tongue  this  is 
the  sense  in  which  it  is  always  employed.  In 
the  Vulgate  edition  of  the  Bible  it  is  to  be 


54      THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

found  in  connections  where  it  has  been  ren- 
dered into  English  somewhat  differently. 
Two  instances  of  this  rise  to  my  mind.  One 
very  familiar  and  precious  passage  is  contained 
in  the  41  st  chapter  of  Isaiah:  "Fear  thou 
not ;  for  I  am  with  thee :  be  not  dismayed ;  for 
I  am  thy  God;  I  will  strengthen  thee;  yea,  I 
will  help  thee;  yea,  I  will  uphold  thee,  I  will 
uphold  thee  with  the  right  hand  of  My 
righteousness."  Now,  that  is  a  very  strong 
and  helpful  promisCj  is  it  not?  The  word 
which  is  rendered  there,  "  I  will  strengthen," 
is  in  the  Latin  tongue  from  the  word  confortare. 
It  is  the  word  whence  our  word  "  comfort " 
was  derived.  Let  me  give  you  another  illus- 
tration. In  the  beginning  of  the  Book  of 
Joshua,  the  Lord,  giving  the  commission  to 
the  new  leader  of  Israel,  says,  "  I  will  be  with 
thee  as  I  was  with  Moses ;  only  be  thou  strong 
and  very  courageous."  Here  again  the  same 
word  is  rendered  in  the  Vulgate  by  confortare, 
"  Be  thou  strengthened,"  "  Be  thou  comfort- 
ed." 

From  these  instances  you  can  see  that  the 
word  taken  here  as  Comforter  has  a  very  large 
and  strong  as  well  as  gracious  meaning.  "  I 
will  give  you  another  Comforter — a  strong 
One — that  He  may  be  with  you  for  ever." 


PROMISE    OF    THE    COMFORTER       55 

This  Comforter  is  not  given  to  us  in  exchange 
for  Christ.  Christ  speaks  of  Himself  as  a 
Paraclete.  Look  once  more  at  the  significance 
of  the  word  Paraclete.  It  is  a  Greek  word, 
and  simply  means  a  someone  called  to  the  side 
of  someone  else.  And  our  Lord,  I  think,  in 
effect  is  speaking  of  Himself  at  the  moment 
as  having  been  called  to  the  rescue  of  humanity. 
He  does  not  even  use  the  word  "  Holy  Spirit," 
for  fear  these  men  should  mistake  His  mean- 
ing. He  thinks  of  Himself  as  called  to  help; 
He  came  to  teach,  to  rescue,  to  save.  "  And 
now,"  He  promises,  "  I  go  to  My  Father,  but 
I  will  call  another  to  be  with  you  for  ever,  not 
to  take  My  place  but  to  reveal  Me  to  the 
world."  "  I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless, 
I  will  not  leave  you  bereaved,  I  will  not  aban- 
don you  :  I  will  come  to  you."  After  the  local 
presence  is  withdrawn,  the  universal  presence 
is  given.  "  And  I  will  give  to  you  another 
Comforter,  the  reinforcement  of  righteous- 
ness, the  Spirit  of  Power,  the  Spirit  of  Truth." 
"  Whom  the  world  cannot  receive,  because 
it  seeth  Him  not,  neither  knoweth  Him  " — it 
is  not  susceptible  to  His  presence — "  but,"  He 
says  very  strongly,  "  ye  know  Him,  for  He 
dwelleth  with  you  and  shall  be  in  you.  /  will 
not  leave  you:  I  come  to  you."  Now  our 


56       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

Lord,  speaking  to  men  who  knew  Him  in  His 
bodily  presence,  is  evidently  promising-  a  spirit- 
ual sustenance  of  which  they  already  knew 
something.  The  Spirit  of  the  Father  had  re- 
vealed the  Christ  to  Peter.  "  Blessed  art  thou, 
Simon  Bar-Jona;  for  flesh  and  blood  hath 
not  revealed  it  unto  Thee,  but  my  Father  which 
is  in  Heaven."  The  Spirit  is  spoken  of  in- 
differently as  the  Spirit  of  the  Father  and  as 
the  Spirit  of  Christ.  He  is  inseparable  from 
either.  He  is  promised  now  as  a  reinforce- 
ment of  righteousness.  He  is  promised  as 
some  person  who  is  already  near  to  these  sim- 
ple men.  "  Ye  know  Him,"  saith  our  Lord, 
"  your  hearts  have  been  opened.  There  is  to 
be  a  fuller  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  that  is 
already  yours."  This,  then,  we  may  take  to 
be  the  plain  meaning  of  the  passage  before  us. 
We  have  now  to  try  to  understand  the  deeper 
content  of  that  meaning. 

I  will  ask  you,  then,  to  look  first  of  all  at 
our  experience  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  a  Divine 
influence.  There  are  many  Christian  people 
who  never  get  beyond  that  point.  They  think 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  an  influence  emanating 
from  God,  and  though  we  have  no  need  to 
object  to  that  view,  it  is  well  to  try  in  a 
measure  to  understand  what  that  influence  is. 


PROMISE    OF    THE    COMFORTER       57 

Let  us  take  an  illustration.  There  is  a  myste- 
rious influence  in  the  electric  light  which  could 
work  mischief  as  well  as  good.  No  one  knows 
what  it  is,  though  we  understand  a  little  of  the 
modes  in  which  it  operates.  We  can  guide  it, 
we  can  employ  it  for  our  use,  but  electricity 
remains  a  mystery.  Again,  there  is  an  opera- 
tive power  in  the  world,  coming  from  some- 
where, but  invisible.  The  very  air  that  we 
breathe  is  an  influence — invisible,  impersonal ; 
plants  and  trees  grow  by  means  of  it,  we  live 
because  of  it.  The  sunlight  also  is  impersonal 
and  invisible.  Light  is  only  visible  in  its  ef- 
fects, and  without  those  effects  we  should 
know  nothing  about  it.  There  are  certain 
products  which  are  the  result  of  the  com- 
bined action  of  light  and  air;  the  flowers  exist 
by  means  of  both.  Now  there  are  certain  qual- 
ities of  human  character  known  as  fruits  of 
the  Spirit.  We  speak  of  them  as  love  and  joy 
and  peace.  They  are  the  effect  of  the  power 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  the  soul  of  man — 
we  cannot  mistake  them.  In  every  holy  life 
we  see  evidence  of  them.  The  Spirit  of  the 
Redeemer  is  reproduced  in  the  character  of  all 
who  seek  to  follow  Him.  They  are  IN  Christ, 
as  the  trees  and  flowers  grow  in  the  air  of 
heaven.  Humility,  gentleness,  patience,  quiet- 


58       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

ness  of  spirit  are  no  accidents,  no  results  with- 
out a  cause.  Where  these  are  Christ  is — "  I 
will  not  leave  you  comfortless ;  I  come  to  you." 
But  if  Christ  is  the  atmosphere  of  the  soul, 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  as  the  light  thereof,  and  it 
is  He  who  takes  of  the  things  of  Christ  and 
builds  them  into  life  and  character  in  the  be- 
lieving child  of  God,  as  the  sunshine  feeds  the 
grass  of  the  field. 

We  have  no  objection,  then,  to  the  thought 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  a  Divine  influence,  but 
we  ought  to  go  still  further  in  our  interpreta- 
tion of  the  goodness  of  God  in  His  gift  to  us  of 
the  Spirit,  for  our  text  speaks  of  Him  as  a 
Person,  a  Person  who  is  called  to  the  side  of, 
and  co-operates  with,  the  Master  in  the  work 
of  saving  men.  Jesus  speaks  of  summoning 
Him.  He  introduces,  therefore,  the  idea  of 
personality.  It  is  in  the  atmosphere  of  person- 
ality that  we  are  to  realise  what  is  meant  by 
this  beautiful  Divine  influence.  Now,  what 
do  we  know  about  that  ?  Let  me  try  and  show 
you.  A  few  days  ago  I  went  to  the  east  end 
of  Brighton  to  witness  the  unveiling  of  the 
portrait  of  Dr.  James  Spurgeon,  who  was,  as 
you  remember,  the  colleague  of  his  distinguish- 
ed brother.  One  speaker,  whose  words  greatly 
appealed  to  me,  speaking  about  the  picture, 


PROMISE    OF    THE    COMFORTER        59 

said :  "  I  cannot  gaze  upon  those  features 
without  emotion.  They  bring  back  the  memo- 
ry of  my  friend,  who  was  to  me  a  great  in- 
fluence. Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon  was  the 
possessor  of  a  potent  personality,  but  so  was 
James  Archer  Spurgeon,  who  in  a  quieter  fash- 
ion, perhaps,  exercised  an  influence  all  his  own. 
The  effect  of  his  presence  upon  me  was  always 
one  of  repose.  If  I  were  near  him  I  felt  that 
he  rested  me."  Now,  what  was  it  that  moved 
this  speaker  to  such  an  utterance  ?  Did  he  feel 
that  the  picture  gave  him  all  he  wanted  of  the 
influence  to  which  he  made  reference  ?  Not  at 
all.  It  but  reminded  him  of  what  had  been, 
that  which  was  now  part  of  himself,  and  it 
was  not  the  form  that  satisfied  him.  What  did 
he  mean?  He  remembered  the  life.  Yes; 
and  more:  remembered  the  very  spirit  of  the 
person,  that  atmosphere  of  the  man  which  was 
really  doing  the  work,  just  as  we  cannot  but 
do  for  God  or  the  devil  our  work  in  this  world 
by  what  we  are,  far  more  than  by  what  we  say, 
or  by  what  we  think  we  effect.  Every  man  or 
woman  brings  his  or  her  own  influence.  It 
depends  upon  your  own  acquaintance  with  God 
what  is  the  real,  though  silent,  influence  you 
exercise  far  more  effectively  than  anything  you 
have  set  yourself  consciously  to  do  for  Him. 


60       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

You  have  sometimes  been  in  the  presence  of  a 
bad  man,  and  you  have  felt  possibly  that  there 
was  something  about  him  that  repelled  you 
even  as  you  looked  at  him.  There  is  a  bad 
influence  as  well  as  a  good.  And,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  ever  the  potent  influence  of  the 
helpless  innocence  of  a  little  child.  I  have 
known  men  to  come  perturbed  and  worried, 
and  in  a  bad  spirit,  into  the  room  where  a  little 
child  was  and  a  glance  at  the  little  face  was 
enough.  The  influence  of  the  little  one  was 
not  something  imaginary.  Sunday  school 
teachers,  it  is  not  your  mental  equipment  that 
is  doing  the  work  in  the  Sunday  school;  it  is 
what  you  are,  and  I  would  rather  have  a  sancti- 
fied life  than  I  would  have  the  cleverest  man 
or  woman  in  the  world  for  the  training  of  the 
children.  They  will  remember  you  by  the  in- 
fluence you  cannot  help  exercising,  by  the  pres- 
ence of  Christ  you  have  brought  to  bear  upon 
them.  Again,  I  have  often  seen  rough  men 
awed  by  the  presence  of  a  weak  woman.  There 
is  an  influence  of  a  womanly  purity  that  is 
stronger  than  the  utmost  strength  of  evil. 
Have  you  ever  known  what  it  is  to  be  en- 
couraged to  do  right,  not  by  being  told  to  do 
so,  but  by  being  near  a  man  stronger  than 
yourself,  whose  mere  presence  helped  you  so 


6i 


that  you  were  the  stronger  man  because  he 
was  there?  There  are  men  living  to-day  on 
the  strength  of  other  men. 

We  know  quite  well  what  is  meant  by 
spiritual  influence  when  it  is  exerted  by  a 
human  personality.  What  shall  we  say,  then, 
about  the  tender  potency  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
not  something  impersonal,  not  something  im- 
aginary, but  something  we  can  observe  at  work 
every  day  in  this  strange  world  of  ours — a 
strong  and  wonderful  living  presence  working 
on  the  hearts  of  men?  Christ  Himself  was 
a  Paraclete;  Christ  Himself  exerted  all  these 
good  influences.  Christ  Himself  yet  lives  in 
the  lives  of  men,  by  that  Holy  Spirit  whom 
He  summoned  to  our  aid.  I  wish  I  could  be 
eloquent  enough  to  make  you  realise  that  this 
is  the  very  truth,  for  there  are  very  many 
who  have  never  made  trial  of  it.  The  Spirit 
here  referred  to  is  called  by  our  Master  the 
Spirit  of  Truth.  Some  know  by  a  vital  ex- 
perience what  this  means.  When  they  hear  of 
the  Spirit  of  Truth  they  think  about  that  mar- 
vellous preservation  of  the  Christian  creed,  con- 
cerning which  so  much  has  been  said  and  writ- 
ten. They  think  about  Church  Councils  in  the 
far  back  ages;  they  think  about  that  formal 
statement  of  a  human  experience  of  God  which 


62       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

has  been  preserved  in  language  like  this :  "  I 
believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of 
Heaven  and  earth;  and  in  Jesus  Christ,  His 
only  Son,  our  Lord,  who  was  conceived  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  suffered 
under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead,  and 
buried.  He  descended  into  hell ;  the  third  day 
He  rose  again  from  the  dead."  These  are 
Christian  facts  that  the  Church  has  lived  to 
witness,  and  we  believe  the  Church  is  taught  of 
the  Holy  Spirit;  and  that  the  truth  has  been 
preserved  by  the  presence  of  that  Spirit.  Just 
so.  But  we  have  not  done.  There  is  a  Spirit 
of  Truth  who  works  in  and  for  the  individual, 
an  experience  that  that  individual  can  share 
with  no  one  else.  Remember  that,  just  as  we 
are  different  the  one  from  the  other,  so  in  a 
certain  measure  must  our  experience  of  life  and 
our  experience  of  God  be  our  very  own.  When 
the  Spirit  of  Truth  was  promised,  He  was 
promised  to  you  as  a  man,  as  a  woman,  for  your 
life.  Christ  spoke  of  the  Spirit  as  the  Agent 
in  righteousness,  regeneration,  sanctification — 
the  Spirit  who  gives  certainty,  assurance  of 
God ;  the  Spirit  who  rests  upon  a  man  for  ser- 
vice; and  that  promise  reached  right  down  the 
ages  till  it  found  you,  and  it  speaks  to  you  this 
morning.  When  I  think  of  the  Spirit  of 


PROMISE    OF    THE    COMFORTER       63 

Truth,  I  think  of  the  truth  of  the  heart  as  well 
as  the  truth  of  the  head.  There  is  the  Spirit 
that  brings  conviction ;  the  Spirit  that  works 
by  consolation.  These  and  many  more  are  as- 
pects of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  You 
and  I  are  each  of  us  one  of  God's  great  facts. 
At  the  point  where  our  lives  separate  we  are 
companied  and  guided  by  the  Spirit  of  Truth. 
You  have  some  truth  to  receive,  some  truth  to 
live,  some  glorious  things  to  discover  alone 
with  God,  apart  with  Jesus;  some  special  ser- 
vice to  render  for  which  man's  counsel  were 
but  in  vain.  Draw  near,  I  beseech  you,  to  the 
Spirit  of  Truth. 

One  never  knows  how  near  the  truth  one 
may  be  in  a  supposition  of  this  kind.  I  may 
be  addressing  a  man  who  has  never  yet  tried — 
because  he  does  not  feel  as  if  he  could — to  look 
his  own  life  in  the  face.  I  want  you  to  do  it 
now.  Christ  has  never  left  you.  When  we 
speak  about  Jesus  from  the  pulpit,  we  are  apt 
to  drop  into  conventionalism,  and  to  say  what 
we  are  expected  to  say,  rather  than  what  every- 
body knows  and  feels  to  be  pulsating,  living 
truth.  Listen.  Christ  has  never  left  you;  and 
that  is  the  reason  why  you  have  so  often  been 
in  wretchedness  concerning  the  mistakes  and 
failures  of  your  life.  Mr.  Hugh  Price 


64       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

Hughes  once  said  in  a  sermon  something  of 
this  kind :  "  It  is  an  awful  thing  for  me  to 
reflect  that  I  stand  to-day,  as  it  were,  in  the 
place  of  Christ  to  you — not  because  He  is  ab- 
sent, but  because  He  is  here.  He  does  not 
speak  for  Himself;  He  speaks  through  my  lips 
to  you.  The  appeal  to  which  you  are  listening 
now  is  Christ's  appeal  to  those  whom  He  has 
never  left."  This  is  what  I  am  trying  to  dem- 
onstrate to  you.  Christ  is  near  you,  knows 
you,  draws  you,  appeals  to  you.  The  Christ 
is  present  with  you  now,  and — -may  I  say  it 
humbly? — the  message  which  I  now  deliver  to 
your  heart  is  Christ's  message.  For  the  mo- 
ment we  will  say  that  the  preacher  stands  in 
the  place  of  Christ.  If  your  heart  responds, 
it  is  because  of  the  influence  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  who  was  summoned  to  the  side  of  Jesus, 
and  who  applied  the  message  of  Christ  to  your 
soul.  The  sermon  is  preached  in  your  own 
heart.  The  Spirit  who  convicts  is  at  work 
within  your  heart  even  now.  Look  at  your 
life  faithfully,  for  the  Spirit  speaks  only  truth. 
He  convicts  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of 
judgment.  The  Lord  our  God  is  a  consuming 
fire.  A  course  of  sin  cannot  last;  it  comes  to 
an  end  some  time,  and  a  man  reaps  what  he 
has  sown.  There  are  men  whose  life  is  a  lie; 


PROMISE    OF    THE    COMFORTER       65 

men  who  persist  in  evil  ways  about  which  they 
dare  not  think.  The  judgment  is  gone  forth. 
Will  you  allow  me  to  speak  a  solemn  word  to 
such  as  you?  If  you  are  thinking  about  your 
life  as  it  appears  to  you  now,  in  the  light  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  stop  right  where  you  are,  and 
let  the  Spirit  of  conviction  become  to  you  the 
Spirit  of  regeneration,  for  He  who  declares  to 
you  the  guilt  of  sin  can  deal  with  the  soul 
agony.  Coming  to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  you 
come  in  a  power  not  your  own,  but  of  the  Spirit 
of  God.  "  Come  now,,  and  let  us  reason  to- 
gether, saith  the  Lord;  though  your  sins  be 
as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow; 
though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be 
as  wool." 

We  have  spoken  of  the  Spirit  of  regeneration. 
"  Ye  must  be  born  again,"  said  our  Divine 
Master.  "  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth, 
and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst 
not  tell  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  go- 
eth :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 
I  recently  read  an  utterance  of  the  Master  of 
Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge,  to  the  effect  that 
men  are  hungry  for  the  knowledge,  the  assur- 
ance, of  a  Divine  power  outside  themselves, 
greater  than  themselves,  that  can  help  and  lift 
and  save.  That  is  the  power  I  am  preach- 


66       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

ing  now.  I  am  preaching  to  those  who 
feel  that  their  life  is  wrong  within,  with- 
out, but  who  cannot  get  to  God.  I 
speak  to  those  in  whom,  against  their  will, 
evil  passions  surge  and  prevail.  I  speak  to 
the  man  who  knows  perfectly  well  the  facts  of 
his  being,  but  who  does  not  know  how  to  get 
free.  God  knows  that  it  is  so,  and  if  you  are 
conscious  of  such  a  feeling  now,  it  is  because 
the  Spirit  of  regeneration  is  present  in  your 
soul.  The  touch  of  God  can  heal  you.  The 
ray  of  light  which  reaches  your  eye  at  this 
moment  has  come  many  million  miles  to  meet 
it :  it  was  meant  for  you  and  no  one  else.  The 
Spirit  who  beareth  witness  about  Christ  is  the 
Spirit  who  is  the  agent  of  the  new  birth.  "  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest 
the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence 
it  cometh  and  whither  it  goeth :  so  is  every 
one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit  " — born  of  the 
Spirit  of  Truth,  whom  the  world  cannot  re- 
ceive, because  the  heart  is  not  open  to  receive 
Him. 

Lastly,  there  is  the  Spirit  of  consolation. 
Is  there  not  a  truth  about  God  which  declares 
Him  as  the  God  of  compassion?  I  think  so. 
It  may  be  that  the  first  message  of  Christ  is  to 
the  conscience;  but  there  is  a  message  for 
everyone  who  is  weighed  down  by  the  anguish 


PROMISE    OF    THE    COMFORTER       67 

of  this  world.  Have  you  a  great  trouble  which 
you  try  to  forget?  You  seem  very  much  left 
to  yourself.  When  we  speak  about  God  we 
use  words,  words  about  a  winsome  idea;  but 
you  want  comfort,  sympathy,  to  lift  you  out  of 
yourself,  and  give  you  a  new  start.  I  would 
like  to  speak,  then,  to  you  who  are  conscious 
of  this  absence  of  peace  of  mind.  If  you  have 
a  great  trouble,  let  me  tell  you  that  it  may 
contain  God's  message  for  you ;  but  that  it  was 
never  meant  that  that  grisly  companion  should 
remain  with  you.  God  can  heal  as  well  as 
wound.  He  binds  up  the  broken  in  heart,  and 
giveth  deliverance  to  the  captive.  Let  me  show 
you  what  I  think  God  means  with  you. 

Here  lies  a  little  sufferer  on  a  bed  of  pain; 
the  mother  is  watching  beside  the  cot.  The 
little  one  sleeps,  not  the  sleep  of  perfect  health, 
but  of  sickness  and  pain.  You  can  see  that 
the  dreams  are  tortured.  There  is  every  now 
and  then  an  expression  of  agony  upon  the  little 
face,  and  the  mother  tenderly  touches  the  suf- 
ferer and  wakes  her.  What  a  look  of  relief 
there  is  upon  the  face  of  the  little  one !  "  Oh, 
mother!  "  says  the  child's  voice,  "  I  have  been 
dreaming  such  dreadful  things.  I  dreamt  that 
I  was  right  away  in  a  lonely  place,  and  that  I 
called  for  you,  and  you  could  not  hear,  but  now 
I  am  awake  I  see  your  face  looking  down 


68       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

upon  me.''  There  is  the  consciousness  of  that 
strong,  tender  presence,  and  the  comfort  of  the 
discovery  is  immeasurable.  The  little  one  is 
at  rest  awake  who  could  not  find  rest  in  sleep. 
I  think  there  are  many  of  you  who  need  to 
realise  that  God's  face  is  looking  down  upon 
you  in  your  torturing  dreams,  and  yet  you 
think  that  He  is  far  away  from  this  darksome 
place  whence  you  have  called  to  Him,  and  that 
He  could  not  hear.  There  is  no  one  can  hear 
so  well.  The  still  small  voice  is  calling  you, 
and  the  everlasting  arms  are  around  you,  for 
the  Comforter  that  has  been  sent  to  you  is  very 
God.  He  is  the  gift  of  peace,  the  peace  which 
passeth  understanding,  which  the  world  can 
neither  give  nor  take  away.  His  is  the  touch 
of  the  hand  of  God,  the  touch  which  wakes  you 
from  the  sleep  of  anguish  to  the  joy  of  com- 
munion with  the  All-Father.  His  presence  it 
is  which  discovers  the  Saviour  to  you,  and  re- 
veals to  your  consciousness  the  abiding  blessing 
of  His  love.  He  is  the  Strong  One,  the  Com- 
forter, the  Helper.  The  Christ  whom  we 
preach  is  present  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that 
Spirit  was  meant  for  you  and  given  to  you. 
"  If  ye,  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give 
good  gifts  unto  your  children ;  how  much  more 
shall  your  Heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  them  that  ask  Him  ?  " 


THE  SELF-ASSERTION  OF  JESUS 

"This  voice  came  not  because  of   Me,    but  for  Xonr 
sakes." — John  xii.,  30. 

OUR  Lord  had  come  up  to  Jerusalem  to  keep 
the  Feast  of  the  Passover.  He  came,  knowing 
that  He  was  coming  to  passion  and  to  death. 
He  came  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  those 
who  loved  Him  best.  He  stood  for  the  mo- 
ment at  the  height  of  His  outward  popularity, 
not  because  of  what  He  actually  taught  and 
aimed  at,  but  because  the  people  thought  they 
saw  in  Him  the  patriot  chief  who  was  to  re- 
deem Israel.  Our  Lord  had  a  triumphal  en- 
try into  Jerusalem.  That  very  act  brought 
upon  Him  the  malevolence  of  the  Pharisees, 
and  ended  in  His  trial  and  crucifixion.  But 
He  had  a  purpose  in  view,  from  which  He 
would  not  draw  back.  The  simple  men  who 
surrounded  Him  were  not  aware  of  this,  nor 
could  they  understand  what  He  was  doing  in 


70       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

thus  drawing  the  attention  of  His  enemies 
publicly  to  Himself.  Certain  Greeks  had  ac- 
companied the  Jews  to  the  Feast.  Jerusalem 
at  this  time  was  a  gathering  place  of  all  na- 
tions. The  Jews  came  from  all  quarters  of  the 
world  to  keep  the  Passover;  others  came  to 
trade  with  the  Jews;  and  it  was  therefore  a 
great  opportunity  for  the  Messiah  to  put  for- 
ward His  claims,  and  He  did  not  shrink  from 
thus  acting.  When  the  Greeks  came  to  Philip, 
desiring  to  see  Jesus,  His  answer  was,  "  The 
hour  is  come  that  the  Son  of  Man  should  be 
glorified,"  and  He  continued,  "  If  any  man 
serve  Me,  let  him  follow  Me ;  and,  where  I  am, 
there  shall  also  My  servant  be;  if  any  man 
serve  Me,  him  will  My  Father  honour.  Father, 
glorify  Thy  name."  Then  there  comes  the  su- 
pernatural visitation,  when  the  voice  from 
Heaven  spake,  saying,  "  I  have  both  glorified 
it,  and  will  glorify  it  again."  Our  Lord  drew 
public  attention  to  Himself  at  this  time  by  the 
assertion  of  His  glory  with  the  Father,  a  claim 
which  is  nothing  short  of  blasphemous  if  He 
were  not  what  Christendom  supposes  Him  to 
be.  He  makes  service  of  Christ  and  service  of 
God  synonymous — "  If  any  man  serve  Me,  him 
will  My  Father  honour."  He  actually  be- 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS      71 

comes  His  own  Gospel,  and  offers  Himself  to 
the  world  and  asks  for  homage  to  Himself. 
So  striking  is  this  self-assertion  of  Jesus  that 
it  has  puzzled  the  best  thought  of  the  world 
external  to  Christianity  from  that  day  to  this. 
One  example  I  may  instance  is  that  of  M. 
Renan,  the  author  of  the  "  Life  of  Jesus," 
which  was  so  widely  read  not  long  ago.  M. 
Renan  says  that  either  the  Fourth  Gospel  is 
unhistorical,  or  that  the  Christ  therein  set  forth 
had  lost  in  the  latter  part  of  His  life  a  little  of 
His  transparency  of  character,  and  poses  as  be- 
ing that  which  He  was  not.  But  when  we 
come  to  compare  the  Fourth  Gospel  with  the 
other  three,  in  spite  of  the  seeming  contradic- 
tion between  them,  there  is  an  underlying  unity 
apparent  in  the  two  sides  of  the  character  of 
Jesus. 

In  the  first  place,  we  note  that  the  type  of 
goodness  which  Jesus  exhibited  to  the  world 
was  one  in  which  lowliness  and  tenderness 
were  conspicuous  ingredients.  The  combina- 
tion of  these  ingredients  with  the  sternness  of 
our  Lord  against  sin  was  something  entirely 
new  to  humankind.  Stoicism  had  given  its 
ideal  to  the  world,  an  ideal  in  which  self-re- 
spect was  carried  to  a  point  that  would  not  be 
tolerated  nowadays.  But  Stoicism,  with  all  its 


72       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

admirableness,  fell  short  of  the  ideal  of  the 
meek  and  lowly  Jesus,  who  combined  the  most 
exquisite  tenderness  with  the  greatest  firmness 
and  even  inexorableness  toward  wrong.  But 
the  lowliness  of  Christ  is  no  pretence.  The 
washing  of  the  disciples'  feet  was  an  act  per- 
fectly in  harmony  with  all  the  rest  of  His  life. 
It  was  the  same  Saviour  who  took  the  little 
children  up  in  His  arms  and  blessed  them.  It 
was  the  same  Saviour  who  was  called  the 
friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.  And  the 
same  Jesus  sat  on  the  well-side  talking  to  the 
woman  of  Samaria,  who — not  only  a  Samari- 
tan, but  a  woman  of  abandoned  character — 
was  yet  worth  the  while  of  the  Master  of  the 
universe  at  that  moment.  It  was  the  same 
Jesus  who  said  to  the  guilty  woman  who  was 
being  hounded  to  death,  "  Doth  no  man  con- 
demn thee?  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee.  Go 
in  peace,  and  sin  no  more."  But  why  speak 
further  about  the  lowliness  and  tenderness  of 
Jesus?  These  facts  stand  out  in  relief:  they 
form  the  very  commonplace  of  Christianity  to- 
day. 

But  side  by  side  with  this  we  are  confronted 
with  the  problem  of  that  strange  self-assertion 
of  Jesus,  and  here  the  three  Synoptical  Gos- 
pels and  St.  John's  Gospel  are  at  one. 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS      73 

We  should  remark  it  is  perfectly  clear  that 
He  meant  all  men  to  know  what  pretensions 
He  put  forth.  He  drew  attention  to  Himself 
on  purpose  that  men  might  understand  what 
He  thought  concerning  Himself,  and  what  His 
witness  to  Himself  was.  If  we  turn  back  to 
the  6th  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  we  find 
these  words :  "  I  am  the  living  bread  which 
came  down  from  Heaven :  if  any  man  eat  of 
this  bread  he  shall  live  for  ever;  and  the  bread 
that  I  will  give  is  My  flesh,  which  I  will  give 
for  the  life  of  the  world."  And  again  in  the 
58th  verse :  "  This  is  that  bread  which  came 
down  from  Heaven;  not  as  your  fathers  did 
eat  manna,  and  are  dead :  he  that  eateth  of  this 
bread  shall  live  for  ever."  The  immediate  ef- 
fect of  these  two  utterances  was  that  some  of 
those  who,  up  to  that  time,  had  thought  well 
of  Jesus,  went  back  and  walked  no  more  with 
Him.  Then  came  the  almost  pathetic  inquiry, 
"Will  ye  also  go  away?"  and  the  answer, 
"  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life."  The  self-assertion  of 
Jesus  at  this  point  was  not  understood,  even 
by  those  who  knew  Him  best,  but  the  winsome- 
ness  of  the  other  side  of  his  character  compelled 
them  to  remain  with  Him.  They  felt  that 


74       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

Jesus  spake  as  though  He  knew  the  very  heart 
of  the  Father,  and  they  adhered  to  Him. 

Now,  before  passing  from  the  witness  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel  to  the  claims  of  Jesus,  I  think 
we  should  say  something  about  the  supposed 
opposition  between  its  account  of  them  and  that 
given  by  the  other  three.  The  Fourth  Gos- 
pel has  been  called  in  question  many  times,  and 
again  at  this  hour.  Who  wrote  it?  It  is  im- 
possible, some  say,  that  John  the  Divine  should 
have  written  it :  it  is  evidently  an  expression  of 
the  later  opinion  of  Christendom  about  its  risen 
Master.  The  Christ  of  the  Gospel  begins  to 
speak  about  Himself  in  the  very  first  chapter. 
The  prologue  to  the  Gospel  opens  with  a  theo- 
ry of  the  person  of  Christ  which  is  in  har- 
mony with  all  His  utterances  in  the  same  Gos- 
pel. Further  than  this,  there  can  be  no  mis- 
take as  to  the  deliberateness  with  which  that 
theory  is  taught.  The  three  Synoptical  Gos- 
pels are  very  simply  put  together,  but  the 
Fourth  Gospel  is  different.  It  has  a  design 
from  beginning  to  end;  it  is  perfectly  propor- 
tioned in  all  its  parts ;  the  argument  concerning 
the  person  of  Jesus  and  the  consistency  of  His 
acts  and  utterances  with  it  are  present  all 
through.  The  Gospel  shows  us  the  lowliness 
of  Jesus,  but  it  further  and  more  emphatically 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS      75 

shows  us  the  assertion  of  the  personal  claims 
of  Jesus.  If  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  the  Fourth 
Gospel  alone,  were  to  put  these  forward,  we 
should  be  at  a  loss  what  to  think ;  but  in  order 
that  we  may  be  at  no  loss  whatever,  let  me  ask 
you  to  turn  back  to  one  of  the  Synoptical  Gos- 
pels and  read  what  is  written  there. 

In  Matt,  x.,  39,  we  read :  "  He  that  findeth 
his  life  shall  lose  it ;  and  he  that  loseth  his  life 
for  My  sake  shall  find  it.  He  that  receiveth 
you  receiveth  Me,  and  he  that  receiveth  Me 
receiveth  Him  that  sent  Me."  What  august 
and  staggering  claims  are  here  put  forth !  and 
what  one  of  you,  however  great  your  saint- 
ship,  dare  put  forth  a  claim  approaching  to 
that  ?  Nay,  I  will  dare  to  say  that  the  greater 
your  saintship,  the  less  will  you  be  inclined  to 
put  forth  such  claims.  But  now  read  in  an- 
other synoptical  chapter  an  utterance  which  is 
in  similar  spirit  to  that  given  in  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  St.  John :  "  At  that  time  Jesus  an- 
swered and  said,  I  thank  Thee,  O  Father,  Lord 
of  Heaven  and  earth,  because  Thou  hast  hid 
these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and 
hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.  Even  so, 
Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  Thy  sight." 
This  is  very  beautiful  and  humble,  but  it  does 
not  stop  there.  "  All  things  are  delivered  unto 


76       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

Me  of  My  Father;  and  no  man  knoweth  the 
Son,  but  the  Father;  neither  knoweth  any  man 
the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomso- 
ever the  Son  will  reveal  Him."  Close  together 
we  have  an  assertion  of  the  tenderest  compas- 
sion and  deepest  humility  combined  with  the 
most  august  claim  to  supremacy  which  we  have 
been  considering  up  to  now.  And  the  chapter 
closes  with  the  gracious  invitation,  "  Come  un- 
to Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  My  yoke  upon 
you,  and  learn  of  Me ;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly 
in  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls. 
For  My  yoke  is  easy,  and  My  burden  is  light." 
Thus,  even  the  gracious  invitation  is  a  stu- 
pendous self-assertion. 

There  can  be  no  mistake,  then.  Whichever 
Gospel  we  turn  to,  whichever  man  bears  record 
of  Jesus,  they  all  tell  the  same  story — that  the 
lowliness  of  Jesus,  the  tenderness  of  Jesus, 
were  blended  with  a  claim  to  sinlessness,  a 
claim  to  supremacy  such  as  repelled  some  of 
those  who  thought  best  of  Him,  and  was  only 
accepted  by  those  who  had,  as  it  were,  nestled 
to  His  heart.  And  the  more  puzzling  becomes 
this  ideal  as  we  try  to  adopt  it  for  imitation. 
It  has  become  the  fashion  for  men  of  the  pres- 
ent day  to  advocate  the  imitation  of  Christ. 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS      77 

The  ideal  for  imitation  changes  a  little  with  the 
progress  of  the  centuries — (I  wonder  what 
Thomas  a  Kempis  would  say  to  the  ideal  set 
forth  by  a  speaker  on  a  Socialist  platform) — 
but  all  would  claim  to  find  something  in  Christ 
worthy  of  imitation.  John  Stuart  Mill,  the 
great  philosopher  and  unbeliever,  said  he  could 
think  of  no  better  rule  of  action  than  to  en- 
deavour so  to  live  that  Christ  would  approve 
our  lives.  A  few  years  ago  a  book  was  pub- 
lished by  an  American  writer,  "  What  would 
Jesus  do  ?  "  It  had  an  unprecedented  sale,  be- 
cause of  the  question  that  was  asked  on  the 
title  page.  It  is  evident  that  the  conscience  of 
the  civilised  community  everywhere  accepts 
Christ  as  the  norm  and  the  standard  of  what 
humanity  ought  to  be,  and  pronounces  Him  to 
be  worthy  of  imitation.  Imitate  Him?  we 
dare  not  imitate  Him.  Imitate  His  lowliness  ? 
Yes,  we  can  do  that;  but  even  in  that  there  is 
something  we  cannot  imitate,  as  I  shall  pres- 
ently endeavour  to  show.  Imitate  His  ten- 
derness ?  Oh  yes,  we  cannot  go  too  far  in  that. 
But  imitate  His  claim  to  sinlessness?  or  His 
claim  to  supremacy?  Without  blasphemy  no 
man  can  do  that.  We  are  confounded  when 
we  try  to  account  for  and  to  combine  these  two 


78       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

sides  of  the  character  of  Christ,  unless  we  ac- 
cept His  own  witness  to  Himself. 

Now,  the  purpose  with  which  these  claims 
were  made  begins  to  loom  a  little  clearer  on 
our  vision.  I  take  it  that  the  self-assertion  of 
Jesus  was  in  line  with  the  purpose  latent  in  the 
expression  of  His  own  goodness.  What  do 
we  take  to  be  the  normal  goodness  at  which 
all  men  should  aim,  and  by  which  we  approve 
or  condemn  our  fellows?  It  is  that  goodness, 
to  be  complete,  must  have  its  final  expression 
in  love.  Here  is  a  man  who  sits  on  the  magis- 
trate's bench,  whose  sentences  are  accepted 
without  criticism  :  they  are  perfectly  just.  No 
man  can  hope  to  bribe  him ;  no  man  can  hope 
to  deflect  his  judgment  by  personal  considera- 
tions. When  men  speak  of  this  man  they  say, 
He  is  a  model  of  integrity :  his  uprightness  is 
beyond  question.  Is  he  good?  To  a  degree, 
yes,  he  is  good.  Now  we  will  go  home  with 
him.  I  see  that  in  the  home  circle  his  wife 
speaks  to  him,  not  as  a  confidential  companion, 
but  as  one  apart.  I  see  that  his  little  children 
keep  out  of  his  way.  Not  one  of  them  must 
confess  a  weakness,  for  fear  of  heavy  censure. 
He  is  hard,  unsympathetic,  inexorable.  What 
do  you  say  instantly  when  you  are  trying  to 
estimate  his  character?  He  thinks  he  is  good, 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS     79 

only  he  might  not  say  so ;  you  could  trust  him 
with  your  money  and  your  reputation — he 
would  betray  neither ;  but  he  stops  short  some- 
where; he  is  nearer  to  the  Stoic  than  to  the 
Saviour.  Goodness  is  not  complete  except  its 
final  expression  be  tenderness  such  as  that  of 
Jesus;  and,  without  such  expression,  goodness, 
as  Christ  would  have  understood  it,  cannot  be 
said  to  exist. 

Here  we  come  to  see  something  of  the  pur- 
pose of  the  Master's  life.  His  goodness  could 
stop  short  of  no  self-oblation.  His  whole  life 
was  an  offering.  The  witness  of  His  own 
words  comes  to  our  help  here :  "  The  Son  of 
Man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
was  lost."  "  The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto  but  to  minister,  and  to  give 
His  life  as  a  ransom  for  many."  Once  more : 
"  I  receive  not  honour  from  men."  Now  we 
can  understand  what  He  meant  when  He  said, 
"  This  voice  came  not  because  of  Me,  but  for 
your  sakes."  The  self-assertion  of  Jesus  is  in 
line  with  His  compassion ;  it  is  part  of  the  ex- 
pression of  goodness.  It  is  in  the  interest  of 
humanity  and  to  give  confidence  that  He  so 
speaks.  It  is  part  of  His  sinless,  loving  minis- 
try. 

From  this  position  we  may  make  two  further 


8o       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

inferences.  The  first  is  that  the  lowliness  of 
Christ  is  of  incomplete  service  to  men  as  a  gos- 
pel without  the  proclamation  of  His  sinless- 
ness.  And  the  second  is,  that  the  tenderness  of 
Jesus,  without  His  supremacy,  fails  in  reaching 
to  the  needs  of  men. 

Take  the  first  of  these  propositions,  and  let 
us  speak  about  the  lowliness  of  Jesus.  We 
have  but  to  refer  to  the  simple  and  beautiful 
stories  which  are  told  best  of  all,  perhaps,  in 
the  1 5th  chapter  of  St.  Luke.  The  late  Pro- 
fessor Bruce  opines  that  that  chapter  was  a  ser- 
mon, and  was  preached  to  an  audience  of  pub- 
licans and  sinners  gathered  in  Matthew's 
house.  Jesus  proclaimed  the  gracious  invita- 
tion of  God  as  if  it  were  His  own,  and  told  the 
story  of  the  prodigal  who  took  the  portion  of 
goods  that  was  his  and  went  into  the  far  coun- 
try, where,  after  coming  to  want  and  misery, 
he  thought  of  his  father,  and  made  up  his  mind 
to  return.  "  And  when  he  was  yet  a  great 
way  off  his  father  saw  him^  and  ran  and  fell 
on  his  neck  and  kissed  him,"  and  brought  him 
home  with  rejoicing.  Think  of  the  tenderness 
of  that  message,  combined  with  the  lowliness 
of  the  Messenger,  who  thus  addressed  an  au- 
dience of  outcasts.  But  here  is  a  remarkable 
thing.  Not  only  was  Jesus  infinitely  lowly  and 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS      81 

tender,  but  He  said  so.  Now,  if  you  find  a 
humble  man  who  says  he  is  humble,  you  are 
apt  to  deny  his  humility.  "  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  in  heart,"  said  Jesus.  Our  humility  at 
its  best  contains  something  of  contrition.  All 
our  excellence  is  derived,  and  we  know  it.  If 
there  is  good  in  us,  it  comes  from  God.  I  re- 
member an  expression  used  once  by  one  who  is 
a  bishop  to-day;  and  if  that  be  the  expression 
of  his  inmost  life,  it  is  well  for  the  Church  of 
God.  Some  one  had  just  been  reminding  him 
of  an  act  of  goodness  which  he  had  performed. 
He  said,  "  Any  good  I  have  ever  been  able  to 
do  is  of  the  unearned  mercy  of  God."  That  is 
true  humility.  We  feel  that  the  merit  is  not 
ours,  but  God's.  All  human  excellence  is  de- 
rived, and  the  note  of  contrition  runs  through- 
out it.  But  the  humility  of  Jesus  is  not  of 
such  an  order.  It  partakes  of  it,  but  it  goes 
beyond  it.  Jesus  in  His  humility  knew  that 
He  was  supreme  over  all  men  in  excellence. 
His  goodness  had  no  flaw.  There  was  no 
room  for  contrition.  He  was  the  Lamb  with- 
out blemish  and  without  spot.  Jesus  was  the 
only  one  who  could  carry  such  a  claim,  and 
carry  it  with  meekness.  Jesus,  who  stood  at 
the  very  heart  of  things,  whose  character  was 
harmonious  and  radiant  with  holiness  derived 


82       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

from  the  Heaven  of  Heavens,  held  all  this  in 
trust  for  humanity.  He  could,  without  being 
self -regarding,  without  looking  to  His  reputa- 
tion, or  thinking  of  what  was  due  to  Himself, 
support  the  consciousness  of  an  excellence 
which  is  transferred  from  Him  to  those  saints 
of  God  who  are  trying  to  follow  Him  to-day. 

Such  is  the  humility  of  Jesus,  and  even  when 
we  try  to  approach  it  we  recognise  that  our 
very  power  of  being  humble  is  derived  from 
Him.  Oh,  brethren,  when  we  try  to  look 
through  the  ranks  of  men  for  one  who  approxi- 
mates to  our  ideal  of  Jesus  we  can  easily  read 
the  uniqueness  of  His  humility  by  our  difficulty 
in  finding  one.  The  late  Henry  Drummond 
was  conspicuous  for  being  a  hearer  of  spiritual 
griefs.  Drummond's  very  lowliness  and  ten- 
derness were  the  reason.  You  know  the  diffi- 
culty to-day  in  finding  such  another  as  Drum- 
mond. Such  men  are  indeed  hard  to  discover. 
But  the  moment  we  think  about  Jesus  the  heart 
cries :  "  Oh  that  He  were  here !  I  could  tell 
Him !  "  Just  as  the  Magdalene  went  to  His 
feet,  so  some  of  us — not  only  weak  women,  but 
strong  men — would  do  to-day  if  Jesus  stood 
here,  and  we  could  touch  Him  with  our  hands. 
We  would  tell  the  whole  story  of  grief  and  dis- 
appointment and  humiliation  and  failure  and 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS      83 

sin,  and  we  should  know  that  He  would  listen, 
listen  as  though  there  were  no  other  such  story 
in  the  wide  world.  We  value  his  lowliness  as 
a  gateway  to  God.  Jesus  would  listen.  He 
has  no  place  where  He  reserves  something  from 
humanity.  His  heart  is  open  at  all  times  to 
receive  the  griefs  that  humanity  has  to  bring. 
But  if  He  could  give  us  no  more  than  sym- 
pathy, where  then  were  the  value  of  Jesus? 
His  lowliness  leads  us  unto  His  sinlessness,  and 
He  alone — not  like  Drummond,  not  like 
Moody,  not  like  Spurgeon,  not  like  any  saint 
of  God  that  ever  hears  our  story — is  the  only 
one  who  has  the  right  to  forgive.  "  Which 
of  you  convinceth  Me  of  sin  ?  "  was  the  chal- 
lenge of  the  Saviour  to  the  hostile  Jewish 
world,  and  how  thankful  we  are  to-day  to  think 
that  He  is  present  to  heal  and  to  succour  and  to 
save  all  men  who  come  to  Him  in  penitence 
and  self-despair.  We  welcome  the  lowliness, 
we  rejoice  in  the  sinlessness.  Oh,  that  self-as- 
sertion of  Jesus,  and  the  confidence  it  brings ! 

And,  lastly,  I  have  said  that  we  could  not 
speak  in  the  same  terms  of  the  tenderness  of 
Jesus  if  we  did  not  think  of  His  kingship.  In 
this  strange  world  of  ours  there  is  very  much 
kindness  though  but  very  little  gratitude. 
Sometimes  we  meet  with  an  instance  of  hero- 


84       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

ism  which  teaches  us  a  truth  about  kindness 
which  otherwise  we  might  miss.  It  is  this : 
there  is  an  ingredient  of  strength  in  all  tender- 
ness. It  is  full  of  surprises.  Here  is  a  public 
man  who  has  a  host  of  enemies  as  well  as  a 
host  of  friends.  When  he  has  some  evil  to 
denounce  he  does  it  with  vigour ;  and  men  hate 
him.  "  What  a  character,"  they  say ;  "  too 
rugged,  too  extreme,  too  self-assertive !  "  We 
will  watch  beside  him  and  observe  how  tender 
he  is  to  that  little  child.  The  strong  man  is 
led  about  by  the  hand  of  a  baby.  Death  enters 
the  home,  and  the  little  one  is  snatched  away. 
See  how  the  great  heart  is  broken  with  grief, 
and  how  well  the  others  in  the  home  under- 
stand. They  can  read  his  real  nature.  The 
tenderness  that  is  written  there  is  a  tenderness 
allied  with  strength.  His  fidelity  has  been  test- 
ed beyond  doubt.  There  are  two  sides  to  that 
man's  nature,  and  they  are  not  inconsistent — 
rather  the  contrary.  But  now  let  us  take  an- 
other example,  somewhat  different.  Here  is  a 
mother  whose  son  is  in  disgrace.  The  world 
frowns  upon  him.  Men  have  ceased  to  believe 
in  him,  and  with  only  too  good  reason.  Per- 
haps the  mother  cannot  believe  in  him  either; 
but  she  won't  leave  him.  She  is  close  beside 
him;  her  eyes  are  closed  to  his  defects. 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS      85 

She  will  fight  for  him  against  the  hostility  of 
society.  She  will  admit  nothing  against 
his  better  nature,  in  spite  of  the  mis- 
givings that  are  in  her  heart.  She  will 
stand  by  this  disgraced  outcast  and  bear 
his  burden  for  him.  Oh,  the  strength  of  a 
love  like  that!  Or  again,  look  at  that  young 
girl  who  is  the  breadwinner  of  the  family.  She 
says  nothing  about  the  hardships  she  has  to 
undergo.  When  she  returns  in  the  evening, 
jarred  and  hurt  by  the  unkindnesses  of  the  day, 
she  just  keeps  the  story  to  herself,  and  does 
not  tell  it  to  the  home  circle  for  fear  of  how 
it  will  sound  to  the  invalid  who  is  so  helpless. 
There  are  marvellous  stories  in  the  world  of 
the  strength  that  is  latent  in  all  tenderness. 
Love  makes  strong.  And  I  will  say  that  no 
man  or  woman  has  ever  been  capable  of  a  deed 
of  self-sacrifice,  but  they  were  the  stronger  for 
it.  There  is  strength  latent  in  all  tenderness, 
which  is  a  flash,  as  it  were,  of  the  nature  of 
God. 

We  draw  near  to  Jesus  now  with  this 
thought  in  our  minds.  Human  strength  may 
go  far,  but  it  cannot  insure  our  well-being,  our 
final  victory  over  the  things  within  and  without, 
which  our  imperfect  nature  has  most  cause  to 
dread.  But  if  Jesus'  witness  to  Himself  were 


86       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

true,  if  He  were  not  mistaken,  if  those  august 
claims  that  He  put  forth  have  stood  the  test  of 
time,  and  are  true  to-day;  if  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel and  the  other  three  unite  in  the  same  testi- 
mony concerning  Him  who  was  before  the 
ages,  to  whom  the  world  belongs;  then  all  is 
well  with  you  and  me.  We  want  to  approach 
Him  with  our  story  of  the  past.  We  have  not 
done  as  we  should ;  we  have  come  far  short  of 
what  we  intended ;  and  we  pour  our  prayer  into 
the  ear  of  some  One  whom  Christendom  affirms 
to  be  Jesus.  There  is  no  story  that  is  not  al- 
ready known  to  Him,  no  part  of  our  being  that 
is  not  already  open  to  Him.  When  you  come 
with  your  troubles,  it  is  to  the  Lord  of  Life 
and  Death.  If  that  be  not  true,  Oh,  it  were 
better  far  that  mankind  had  never  heard  the 
story — the  sorrow  of  it  would  be  too  fearful! 
But  there  is  no  doubt  about  it.  "  God  so  loved 
the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not 
perish  but  have  everlasting  life."  Lest  we 
should  mistake,  He  said :  "  If  a  man  love  Me, 
he  will  keep  My  words;  and  My  Father  will 
love  him,  and  We  will  come  unto  him,  and 
make  our  abode  with  him."  Precious  truth! 
for  it  gives  us  possession  of  the  Infinite.  "  All 
things  are  yours;  this  was  for  your  sakes." 


THE    SELF-ASSERTION    OF    JESUS      87 

"  All  things  are  yours ;  whether  Paul,  or  Apol- 
los,  or  Cephas,  or  the  world,  or  life,  or  death, 
or  things  present,  or  things  to  come — all  are 
yours;  and  ye  are  Christ's;  and  Christ  is 
God's." 


VI 
GOD'S  PERFECTING  OF  LIFE. 


"The  Lord  will  perfect  that  which  concerneth  me." 

— Ps.  cxxxviii.,  8. 


OUR  text  is  taken  from  one  of  the  captivity 
Psalms.  Israel  is  rejoicing  in  her  deliverance 
from  a  long  stage  of  political  thraldom.  She 
speaks  through  the  voice  of  the  Psalmist,  and 
this  is  her  utterance  of  thanksgiving  to  God. 
At  the  same  time,  it  is  a  recognition  of  the 
oneness  of  the  people  of  Israel  in  God.  Israel 
is  homeless;  her  home  has  to  be  re-made. 
She  is  delivered  from  one  danger,  but  others 
confront  her.  Her  problems  are  by  no  means 
over;  her  difficulties  have  only  just  begun. 
Nevertheless,  her  song  is  one  of  triumph : 
what  God  hath  begun,  that  He  will  also  com- 
plete. "  The  Lord  will  perfect  that  which  con- 
cerneth me." 

This  text  is  one  peculiarly  suitable  to  an 
audience  gathered  together  at  the  beginning 


GOD'S    PERFECTING    OF    LIFE          89 

of  the  twentieth  century.  For  we  seek,  with 
perhaps  a  larger  vision  than  was  ever  given 
to  ancient  Israel,  the  essential  truth  which  it 
declares.  None  of  us  can  mistake  what  we 
may  call  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  climate 
of  the  day  in  which  we  live.  And  if  we  are 
to  be  faithful  ministers  of  Christ,  it  is  requisite 
that  we  should  obey  His  own  injunction,  and 
learn  to  read  and  to  interpret  the  signs  of  the 
times. 

I  take  it  that  the  century  which  has  just 
closed — that  wonderful  century — has  given  to 
us  many  good  things,  as  well  as  many  others 
of  more  doubtful  importance.  And  one  of 
the  things  which  has  become  a  mental  posses- 
sion of  our  own  day  is  the  new  emphasis  which 
has  been  placed  upon  the  solidarity  of  the  race. 
We  see  now,  as  perfectly  as  Israel  ever  did, 
perhaps  more  perfectly  even  than  the  inspired 
Psalmist,  the  solidarity  of  man  with  man,  and 
of  all  with  God.  The  day  of  a  selfish  and 
blatant  individualism  is  gone  by;  and  in  mak- 
ing that  remark  I  speak  from  the  point  of  view 
of  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  not  of  one  whose 
plan  and  purpose  it  is  to  declare  news  about 
social  emancipation.  We  just  know  this — 
and  cannot  escape  from  knowing  it — that  "  no 


90       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

man  liveth  to  himself."  The  individual 
realises  himself  in  society,  and  apart  from 
society  his  individuality  is  naught.  Personali- 
ty is  only  discovered  in  relations;  and  for  us 
to  say,  in  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  "  The 
Lord  will  perfect  that  which  concerneth  me," 
is  the  same  thing  as  to  say,  "  The  Lord  will 
perfect  that  which  concerneth  man."  For  the 
one  unescapable  reality  of  all  human  life  is 
God! 

Nor  can  we  stop  here.  One  note  that  has 
been  struck,  I  think,  with  considerable  power 
in  the  years  that  are  just  over,  is  that  of  the 
essential  unity  of  all  existence.  A  certain 
great  scientist,  speaking  of  an  older  theology 
than  that  perhaps  in  which  you  and  I  were 
trained,  characterised  it  as  not  only  being 
somewhat  selfish,  but  he  says — whether  right- 
ly or  wrongly — that  it  was  somewhat  "  con- 
ceited." "  We  have  discovered,"  he  says, 
"  that  the  world  transcends  the  interests  of 
humanity.  Whereas  once  we  spoke  of  men  as 
the  crown  of  creation,  that  for  the  sake  of 
which  all  else  exists,  now  we  have  come  to  dis- 
cover that  we  are  each  of  us,  and  humanity  as 
a  whole,  but  a  very  puny  factor  in  the  life  of 
the  universe.  If  there  be  a  purpose  in  it  all, 


GOD'S    PERFECTING    OF    LIFE          91 

it  is  one  which  transcends  the  interests  of 
humanity,  yet  still  remains  an  ordered  whole." 
Once  more,  therefore,  we  discover  not  only 
the  solidarity  of  man  with  nature,  and  all  with 
God ;  but  we  discover  that  the  universe  is  one. 
Yes;  in  every  relationship  with  which  we  are 
familiar,  examined  in  all  senses  and  directions, 
we  cannot  but  realise  that,  for  good  or  for 
evil,  the  universe  is  one.  The  garment  of  na- 
ture is  woven  seamless  throughout.  We  are 
related  and  inter-related,  not  only  one  to  the 
other,  but  to  the  whole  mysterious  existence 
of  which  we  form  a  part.  Then  the  question 
of  questions  necessarily  becomes:  Is  there  a 
soul  thereof  ?  And  we  who  are  trying  to  read 
the  signs  of  the  times  ought  to  be  ready  with 
our  evangel  to  meet  what  I  believe,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  has  been  a  created  ques- 
tion, namely,  Is  there  a  soul  to  this  whole  of 
mysterious  existence  of  which  we  ourselves  are 
a  part?  What  is  at  the  heart  of  things? 
Of  what  kind  is  He  who  reigns?  Of  what 
kind  is  He  in  whom  our  being  and 
our  interests  are  co-ordained?  And  there  can 
be  no  answer  to  that  question  sufficient  for  the 
hour  outside  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  We 
are  not  only  ministers  of  Christ,  but  I  pray 


92       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

you  to  remember  that  we  are  stewards  of  the 
mysteries  of  God. 

Here  it  is  that  revealed  religion  comes  in 
with  its  note  of  good  confidence  and  high 
hope.  Apart  from  Christ,  what  answer  is 
there  to  the  riddle  of  existence?  And  I  think 
here  one  may  say,  without  being  misunder- 
stood, that  for  moral  and  spiritual  import  no 
sufficient  stress  has  been  placed  upon  what 
Christendom  has  come  to  regard  as  the  cos- 
mical  significance  of  Christ.  Jesus  spake  not 
only  to  the  individual  conscience  and  heart, 
but  speaks  to  those  who  are  rooted  and 
grounded  in  Him  to-day,  in  such  terms  as 
these :  God  has  never  ceased  to  reign ;  and  that 
expression  of  the  life  of  God  which  alone  has 
value  for  a  noble  soul,  and  which  can  satisfy 
the  highest  cravings  of  the  human  spirit,  is 
revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  Christ  who 
reigns  and  in  whom  creation  is  unified.  And 
the  revelation  comes  not  first,  mind  you,  to  the 
intellect;  it  comes  first  to  the  conscience,  it 
grips  the  heart.  The  cosmical  significance  of 
Christ  is  that  which  gives  to  us  sweet  confi- 
dence and  high  hope,  when  we  reflect  upon 
the  fundamental  questions  of  our  life  and  des- 
tiny. For  if  the  same  Jesus  who  taught  upon 
the  hill-side  of  Galilee  in  the  long  ago;  who 


GOD'S    PERFECTING    OF    LIFE          93 

sat  upon  the  well  of  Samaria — speaking  to 
one  of  abandoned  character,  an  outcast;  the 
Jesus  of  the  home  at  Bethany;  the  Jesus  who 
wept  by  Lazarus'  grave;  the  Jesus  who  healed 
the  sick,  cleansed  the  lepers,  raised  the  dead: 
if  that  same  Jesus  be  seated  upon  the  Throne 
of  the  Universe — then  all  is  well!  And  it  is, 
it  seems  to  me,  at  the  present  day  a  serious 
omission  from  much  of  our  pulpit  teaching, 
that  we  do  not  press  to  the  very  front  the 
ground  of  our  confidence  that  things  cannot 
be  wrong,  that  God  has  never  ceased  to  reign 
— because  all  authority  is  committed,  in  Heav- 
en and  on  earth,  to  the  Christ  whom  we  adore ! 
"  The  Lord  will  perfect  that  which  concerneth 
me." 

If  we  press  this  truth  too  far,  then  we  are 
in  danger  perhaps  of  weakening  the  sense  of 
moral  responsibility.  Here  again  one  touches 
upon  a  characteristic  of  our  own  day.  Chris- 
tian brethren,  this  is  a  time  of  comparative 
moral  apathy.  These  periods  seem  to  come 
in  cycles.  The  great  wave  of  Puritan  inten- 
sity of  two  centuries  ago  no  sooner  spent  itself 
than  there  came  a  time  of  wild  reaction,  when 
men  lived  for  the  moment,  and  in  the  name 
of  humanism  perpetrated  false  thoughts  and 
actions.  Once  more  we  have  entered  upon  a 


94       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

period  of  moral  apathy.  Let  us  watch  it;  let 
us  learn  to  discern  its  characteristics.  Men 
are  not  in  earnest  now  very  much  about 
anything;  neither  in  secular  nor  in  sacred 
things  can  you,  without  much  labour  and  self- 
sacrifice,  work  up  any  enthusiasm.  There  is 
an  absence  of  the  willingness  to  take  re- 
sponsibility, which  willingness  characterised 
those  who  have  left  us  the  spiritual  heritage 
that  we  enjoy  to-day.  Men  are  willing  to  let 
things  slide.  Anybody  else  may  carry  the 
cross,  so  long  as  we  are  not  troubled  by  it. 

Again,  there  is  a  strange  and  regrettable 
weakening  of  the  sense  of  sin.  Preachers  who 
ignore  that  fact  are  not  faithful  to  the  evangel 
which  has  been  committed  to  them  as  a  trust 
from  God.  And  sometimes  it  has  seemed  to 
me  as  if  we  were  more  in  earnest  to  comfort 
and  reassure  humanity  than  we  are  to  press 
home  upon  sinners  their  responsibility  to  the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth,  whose  sternness  is  not 
the  less  real  because  He  is  also  the  meek  and 
lowly  Jesus.  This  weakening  of  the  sense  of 
sin  is  due,  in  part,  to  the  weakening  of  the  note 
of  authority  in  our  evangel.  Let  us  never 
cease  to  preach  the  terrors  of  the  Lord ;  for  to 
preach  the  sternness  of  God  is  necessary,  if 
we  are  preaching  rightly  the  benevolence  of 


95 


God.  Because  whom  He  loves  He  will  not 
spare;  and  to  understate  His  sternness  because 
of  His  love  is  wrong,  for  the  two  can  never 
be  considered  apart.  The  Lord  our  God  is  a 
consuming  fire.  He  will  perfect  that  which 
concerneth  man,  even  though  He  triumph  at 
his  cost. 

In  this  regard  we  are  sometimes  accused, 
and  rightly  accused,  perhaps,  of  making  for- 
giveness too  easy.  In  a  remarkable  article 
written  in  the  British  Weekly  by  Dr.  Robert- 
son Nicoll  concerning  "  Scoundrelism,"  he 
said  in  substance  this :  That  Christian  preach- 
ers, in  common  with  many  other  teachers  of  to- 
day, are  in  danger  of  prophesying  smooth 
things,  and  sprinkling  the  way  of  life  with  rose 
water.  We  have  lost  the  note  of  authority, 
somehow,  in  our  pulpit  preaching.  Men  criti- 
cise us,  which  ought  not  to  be  possible;  we 
ought  to  challenge  men.  And  the  writer  goes 
on  to  say  that  it  seems  as  though,  by  the  very 
weakening  of  our  evangel,  we  are  contributing 
to  the  weakening  of  the  sense  of  sin,  to  which 
reference  has  been  already  made.  And  he 
asks  the  questions,  What  can  repentance  do? 
What,  also,  can  it  not  do?  His  conclusion 
seems  to  be,  Though  repentance  can  bring  the 
sinner  back  to  God,  and  secure  the  blending 


96       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

of  the  spirit  of  the  penitent  with  the  spirit  of 
the  Maker  and  the  Judge,  yet  it  never  can  re- 
mit the  penalty  of  sin.  He  who  goes  to  the 
far  country  very  seldom  comes  back ;  and  when 
he  comes  back,  he  cannot  find  the  old  home  as 
he  left  it.  Life  is  so  stern,  that  it  ought  never 
to  be  played  with.  "  God  is  not  mocked : 
whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap."  "  Not  something  else,"  as  Robertson, 
of  Brighton,  has  said,  "  but  just  that." 

In  reading  that  article,  I  felt  how  very  neces- 
sary it  was  that  we  should  be  recalled  to  the 
significance  of  the  Gospel  we  preach.  It  is 
too  solemn  for  us  to  trifle  with  it.  But  at  the 
same  time  I  felt  that  the  writer  had,  in  em- 
phasising a  solemn  truth,  failed  to  see — or,  at 
any  rate,  failed  to  say — something  which  has 
been  entrusted  to  every  preacher  of  the  Gospel 
to  say.  What  can  repentance  do?  Much. 
It  can  bring  the  sinner  back  to  God.  What 
can  it  not  do  ?  It  cannot  remit  penalty  ?  Yes, 
it  can,  and  does.  It  is  a  strange  fact  that  at 
the  very  moment  when  we  have  failed  to  make 
clear  to  men  the  sinfulness  of  sin,  and  have 
made  forgiveness  too  easy,  the  world  has  been 
reminding  us  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
forgiveness  at  all.  That,  I  take  it,  is  the  or- 
dinary experience  of  sinful  man.  To  every 


GOD'S    PERFECTING    OF    LIFE          97 

man,  or  to  most  men,  shall  I  say,  forgiveness 
is  associated  in  some  degree  with  some  remis- 
sion of  the  penalty  of  wrongdoing.  The  two 
are  not  one ;  but  men  feel  about  them  as  though 
they  were.  Forgiveness  seems  unreal,  except 
it  be  accompanied  by  an  evangel  which  says, 
"  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be 
as  snow ;  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they 
shall  be  as  wool." 

Hear  what  society  says  concerning  this. 
Here,  it  may  be,  is  a  man  who  had  sinned 
against  the  laws  of  his  country.  He  once  oc- 
cupied a  high  position  in  the  esteem  of  the 
society  in  which  he  had  been  born.  He  is 
placed  inside  the  prison-house:  society  exe- 
crates him,  and,  it  may  be,  complains  that  the 
sentence  was  not  long  enough,  and  talks  about 
the  time  when  he  will  come  out.  He  will 
never  come  out.  Once  the  door  is  closed,  so- 
ciety has  closed  it  for  ever.  There  is  no  more 
going  back,  there  is  no  more  taking  up  the 
threads  of  forfeited  opportunity.  That  which 
is  done  can  never  be  undone.  All  through  life 
that  sinner  will  be  shadowed  by  the  wrong 
that  he  committed  in  the  hour  of  sinful  de- 
lirium. There  is  no  forgiveness  in  society. 

And  there  is  no  forgiveness  in  nature.     Men 


98       THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

know  it;  and  when  we  play  with  the  facts  of 
life  in  the  pulpit,  they  feel  that  our  message  is 
unreal.  Here  comes  a  drunkard  to  you — lis- 
tening to  your  evangel,  and  trying  to  take  hope 
therefrom.  And  the  thought  in  his  mind — 
whether  he  presents  it  to  you  or  not — is  this, 
as  he  holds  up  his  trembling  hands :  "  Can 
aught  give  me  back  the  virile  manhood  I  have 
forfeited — that  strength  of  constitution  which 
seems  gone  for  ever?  And  if  not,  where  can 
the  forgiveness  of  God  come?"  If  God  for- 
gives, can  God  restore?  Can  that  which  has 
been  be  as  though  it  has  never  been?  For 
this  is  the  cry  of  every  man  who  has  become 
a  victim  to  his  own  sinful  passion. 

Here  is  another — though  I  do  not  wish  to 
weary  you  with  a  mulitplication  of  instances : 
Here  is  a  man  who  has  lived  to  the  flesh,  and 
of  the  flesh  reaped  corruption.  This  lustful 
one  has  bequeathed  a  dread  heritage  to  his 
children.  And  as  he  listens  to  the  sound  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus,  which  rings  in  his  ear  as  a 
message  of  sweetness,  he  thinks  to  himself: 
"  How  can  that  which  hath  been  done  be  un- 
done by  this  Gospel  that  sounds  so  sweet, 
though  so  unreal?  Can  God  give  me  back 
again  the  lives  of  my  children  which  I  have 
shattered  ?  Can  God  restore  to  me  that  oppor- 


GOD'S    PERFECTING    OF    LIFE         99 

tunity — not  for  my  own  sake  do  I  ask  it — 
that  I  have  thrown  away?  Alas,  no! 

The  tender  grace  of  a  day  that  is  dead 
Will  never  come  back  to  me." 

The  penalty  of  sin  seems  to  remain.  No — the 
world  will  not  believe  in  forgiveness. 

Now,  the  answer  to  the  very  real  difficulty 
thus  created  appears  to  me  to  be  that  which 
we  read  about  in  the  55th  chapter  of  Isaiah — 
the  transmutation  of  the  curse.  There  is  no 
going  back,  because  there  is  something  better 
further  on.  The  curse  becomes  the  cross. 
Every  saint  of  God  has  to  carry  his.  And  I 
would  say  to  the  poor  drunkard  who  comes  to 
me  with  his  shaking  hands:  Brother,  God  in 
His  mercy  has  ordained  that  you  carry  your 
cross.  It  was  self-imposed  in  the  first  in- 
stance. You  must  carry  it  for  His  sake  now. 
And,  brother,  we  are  just  alike,  you  and  I,  for 
I  must  carry  mine,  and  all  children  of  the  Lord 
must  carry  theirs.  "  Whom  the  Lord  loveth 
He  chasteneth,  and  scourgeth  every  son  whom 
He  receiveth." 

Repentance,  if  it  be  true,  has  no  note  of 
selfishness  in  it;  and  your  palsied  one  would 
say,  "  Right,  and  just,  and  true  are  the  ways 
of  the  Lord.  I  take  this  penalty  as  a  disci- 


ioo     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

pline  to  be  received,  as  that  which  God  has 
given  me."  If  not  this  cross,  then  some  other ; 
and  for  all  who  love  Him,  God  turns  the  pen- 
alties of  sin  from  a  curse  into  a  blessing.  The 
stains  become  the  stigmata;  the  stripes  of  the 
Lord  become  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
The  evangel  is  there.  "  The  Lord  will  per- 
fect that  which  concerneth  me." 

Once  more.  It  seems  as  though  the  Gospel 
contained  in  this  text  extends  to  the  ulterior 
consequences  of  human  sin.  Oh,  if  we  could 
but  sin  to  ourselves,  and  ourselves  bear  the 
cost!  But  the  innocent  suffer  for  the  guilty; 
those  who  love,  frequently  suffer  more  than 
the  sinner  himself.  It  is  because  of  the  solid- 
arity of  the  race,  to  which  reference  has  just 
been  made,  that  no  man  liveth  to  himself,  that 
the  consequences  of  wrongdoing  are  felt  far 
beyond  the  region  of  the  personality  of  him 
who  commits  the  wrong.  Here  is  a  problem. 
A  man  comes  to  himself ;  it  is  not  the  thought 
of  repentance,  or  of  what  he  himself  may  bear, 
that  troubles  him;  it  is  the  thought  of  that 
which  he  can  never  overtake  which  is  working 
its  effect  in  the  lives  of  other  men.  Is  there 
an  evangel  for  that?  I  think  there  is,  and  it 
is  to  be  found  in  my  text.  To  him  who  comes 
in  faith  to  God,  there  is  a  blessed  future  of 


GOD'S    PERFECTING    OF    LIFE        101 

hope  promised.  Yes:  it  is  God  who  takes 
charge  of  the  whole  of  the  circumstances,  and 
of  the  whole  circumference  of  effect  also  in 
which  you  are  concerned,  and  "  the  Lord  will 
perfect  that  which  concerneth  you." 

As  I  stood  and  looked  out  into  the  most 
beautiful  street  in  the  world — Princes  Street, 
Edinburgh — and  watched  the  smoke  from  a 
hundred  chimneys  ascending  into  the  heavens 
above,  and  all  the  hurrying  throng  below,  the 
thought  crossed  my  mind :  Is  this  foul  smoke, 
which  is  penetrating  the  atmosphere,  to  ac- 
cumulate and  to  increase  till  the  whole  is  poi- 
soned and  rendered  unfit  for  human  beings  to 
breathe?  And  then  there  came  the  obvious 
and  commonsense  fact  that  even  as  it  ascends 
it  is  being  transmuted,  and  it  will  return  to- 
morrow as  something  else  than  that  which  was 
sent  away.  The  sewage  passing  under  our 
feet  away  out  to  the  great  ocean  does  not  go 
there  to  be  destroyed,  but  to  be  transformed; 
and  it  will  come  back  again  to  refresh  this 
land  in  rain.  These  fleecy  white  clouds  above 
us  in  the  heavens — whence  came  they  ?  From 
many  a  marsh,  from  many  a  stagnant  pool, 
from  many  a  reeking  slum.  There  they  are — 
purified,  and  now  suspended  in  the  firmament 
of  God. 


102     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

We  are  giving  out  every  day  by  what  we 
are,  as  well  as  by  what  we  do,  facts  which  are 
affecting  other  lives,  and  we  cannot  recall  them. 
The  moment  for  that  has  gone  by  directly  the 
sin  is  committed.  Yes;  we  cause  the  suffer- 
ing and  we  do  the  harm.  Yet  God  uses  both. 
He  reigns.  He  has  never  abdicated.  Our  life 
is  in  His  charge.  And  the  moment  thought 
becomes  volition  in  any  man,  and  passes  into 
act,  that  moment  it  is  swallowed  up  like  some- 
thing in  the  atmosphere — in  the  mighty  de- 
signs of  God.  Strive  as  you  may,  you  can- 
not defeat  Him.  "  Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all 
the  earth  do  right  ?  "  Keep  ever  humble,  peni- 
tent one.  Turn  to  what  you  can  do.  Cease 
to  mourn  for  what  you  cannot  do.  Think  of 
what  the  dying  Arthur  says  in  "  The  Idylls 
of  the  King:" 

I  have  lived  my  life,  and  that  which  I  have  done 
May  He  within  Himself  make  pure. 

"  The  Lord  will  perfect  that  which  con- 
cerneth  me." 

All  the  past  things  are  past  and  over; 
The  tasks  are  done  and  the  tears  are  shed. 

Yesterday's  errors  let  yesterday  cover; 
Yesterday's  wounds  which  smarted  and  bled 
Are  healed  with  the  healing  which  God  has  shed. 


GOD'S    PERFECTING    OF    LIFE        103 

Let  them  go,  for  you  cannot  relieve  them — 

Cannot  undo,  and  cannot  atone. 
God,  in  His  mercy,  receive  and  forgive  them. 

Only  the  new  days  are  our  own; 

To-day  is  ours,  and  to-day  alone. 

Again,  the  thought  full  of  significance  and 
helpfulness  comes  to  us  from  this  text,  that 
for  all  to  whom  self-expression  in  this  life 
has  been  denied,  there  is  a  Divine  truth  to  com- 
fort them :  "  The  Lord  will  perfect  that  which 
concerneth  me."  In  a  congregation  gathered 
from  amongst  serious-thinking  men,  many 
being  true  servants  of  God,  there  must  be  many 
who  know  what  it  is  to  hear  the  sad  music  of 
humanity.  I  think  scarcely  any  man  can  take 
life  and  duty  seriously  without  sometimes  feel- 
ing the  pressure  of  sadness — upon  what  he 
thinks,  as  well  as  upon  what  he  says.  You 
cannot  help  it.  Live  faithfully  unto  God,  and 
though  your  optimism  be  undoubted,  always 
therein  you  must  discern,  and  must  possess, 
and  must  declare,  the  note  of  solemnity.  It 
is  because  the  heart  of  man  is  evil  continually, 
that  deep  down  we  discern  the  sad  music  of 
humanity.  You  have  been  trying  to  live  out 
your  life;  sometimes  you  failed  to  do  what  you 
set  yourself  to  do,  sometimes  it  seemed  as 
though  you  were  misunderstood  in  the  best 


104     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

effort  that  you  put  forth.  Consecration  to 
God  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  you  are  to 
be  understood  of  your  fellows  in  this  world. 
You  have  tried  to  do  something  for  God.  Mr. 
Ruskin  tells  us  that  no  well-meant  effort,  put 
forward  with  consecrated  motive,  can  ever  fail. 
Sometimes  it  seems  as  if  it  has  failed.  The 
best  attempted  actions,  carried  out  with  most 
honest  purpose,  sometimes  seem  to  do  more 
harm  than  good. 

For  the  comfort  of  the  people  of  God  let  us 
hear  His  message  upon  such  a  suggestion  as 
this — "  The  Lord  will  perfect  that  which  con- 
cerneth  me."  Once  in  a  village  in  Germany — 
so  I  have  been  told — there  lived  a  man  of 
genius,  who  built  for  the  village  church  an 
organ,  wherewith  public  worship  was  to  be 
conducted.  But  he  could  not  give  it  voice. 
Years  went  by  and  he  became  the  laughing- 
stock of  the  community.  He  could  not  bring 
harmony  forth  from  the  instrument  that  he  had 
himself  created.  It  was  latent  and  slumbered 
there,  and  needed  a  master-hand  to  awaken  it. 
But  one  day  there  came  the  great  musician, 
Sebastian  Bach,  to  that  township,  and  the  peo- 
ple flocked  to  hear  him.  And  timidly 
amongst  the  rest  approached  this  man  whom 
the  people  had  for  years  laughed  at.  And  he 


GOD'S    PERFECTING    OF    LIFE        105 

entreated  Bach,  "  Master,  lay  your  hands  up- 
on the  keys  of  my  instrument,  and  see  if  the 
harmony  be  there."  And  when  Bach  com- 
plied, then  that  to  which  utterance  had  seemed 
denied  suddenly  gave  forth  melody  so  sweet 
that  not  only  was  the  poor  old  man  vindicated, 
but — what  was  a  greater  matter  to  him — his 
very  soul  leaped  up  in  thankfulness  to  God. 
He  had  now  expressed  himself,  and  it  was  for 
this  he  had  been  living  those  many  years  past. 
Ah,  and  sometimes  it  seems  to  us  as  if  our 
Lord  delay eth  His  corning.  All  workers  with 
Christ  know  what  it  is  to  go  into  Gethsemane 
with  the  Master,  for  all  noble  souls  are  lonely 
sometimes.  Our  faith  is  dim,  and  we  turn  to 
the  Old  Book  for  the  comfort  which  we  are 
entitled  to  receive.  Yes,  "  The  Lord  will 
perfect  that  which  concerneth  me." 

Live  truly  unto  God :  wait  for  that  better 
day,  that  day  of  His  appearing,  when  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness  shall  shine  round  about  you. 
Then  all  done  faithfully  unto  God  shall  stand 
as  the  great  purpose  He  has  purposed;  and 
Christ  will  interpret  that  which  men  have  fail- 
ed to  read.  "  The  Lord  will  perfect  that  which 
concerneth  me." 

Any  church  to  live  must  be  a  missionary 
church.  Every  member  must  be  a  missionary. 


io6    THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

This  is  what  we  have  to  take  to  the  world — 
and  no  faltering  note  this! — Christ  crucified, 
as  the  Lord  of  life  and  death.  I  would  put 
no  bound  to  the  Saviourhood  of  Christ.  Christ 
is  our  Saviour  from  everything  which  hu- 
manity has  cause  to  dread,  and  our  Saviour 
to  everything  for  which  humanity  ought  to 
hope.  Go  with  the  blessing  of  God  upon  you, 
for  power  must  come  to  the  message,  as  you 
lay  it  alongside  human  need :  "  Though  your 
sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as 
snow;  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they 
shall  be  as  wool."  "  The  Lord  will  perfect 
that  which  concerneth  me." 


VII 

THE  HUMANITY  OF  GOD 

"  Thomas  answered  and  said  unto  Him,  'My  Lord  and 
my  God."' — John  xx.,  28. 

You  will  hardly  need  to  be  reminded  of  the 
circumstances  under  which  these  words  were 
first  spoken.  This  is  the  place  in  the  New 
Testament  where  the  Deity  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  first  and  plainly  affirmed.  If  the 
apostle's  account  is  true,  and  I  believe  every 
syllable  of  it  is,  this  is  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world  when  the  experience  of  a 
loving  disciple  discovered  the  humanity  of 
God.  Thomas  was  privileged,  doubter  though 
he  was,  to  fix  the  faith  of  Christendom  in  the 
sentence  which  is  our  text — "  My  Lord  and 
my  God."  All  creeds  begin  in  experience,  and 
every  man  has  his  creed,  even  when  he  says 
he  has  not.  As  is  your  experience,  so  is  your 
creed.  The  mere  utterance  of  a  sentence,  an- 
other man's  sentence,  though  you  may  call  it 
your  creed,  is  not  your  creed  unless  it  is  a  part 


io8    THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

of  your  life.  How  much  Thomas  meant  by 
his  utterance  one  cannot  say,  but  that  ejacula- 
tion which  sprang  from  a  loving  heart,  from 
a  delighted  and  devout  soul,  "  My  Lord  and 
my  God,"  was  the  affirmation  of  an  experience 
which,  afterwards  put  into  a  creed,  has  helped 
to  form  and  fashion  thousands  of  lives,  and  to 
supply  the  inspiration  for  a  myriad  noble 
characters.  The  Deity  of  Jesus  stands  as  the 
first  article  of  the  Christian  faith  if  we  are  to 
believe  in  a  Divine  deliverer  at  all.  I  am  well 
aware  that  many  persons,  especially,  perhaps, 
young  people,  have  very  great  difficulty  in  be- 
lieving in  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  as  it  is  call- 
ed. I  am  going  to  try  to  show  you  that  you 
believe  it  already,  and  that  as  you  live  nobly 
you  are  sure  to  believe  it  more.  First,  let  me 
state  your  difficulty. 

One  has  often  heard  men  say: 

How  much  simpler  your  Christianity  would 
be  if  you  were  to  preach  your  human  master 
and  leave  supernaturalism  out  of  your  Gos- 
pel. We  admit  that  Christ  was  a  good  man; 
we  will  go  further  and  say,  He  is  the  best 
Man  that  ever  lived,  the  pattern  and  example 
of  humanity  for  all  time.  But  don't  ask  us 
to  believe  that  He  was  God;  that  is  a  strain 
upon  credulity.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with 


THE    HUMANITY    OF    GOD          109 

the  ethic  of  Christianity,  and,  in  fact,  helps  to 
weaken  it. 

I  have  heard  others  say: 

Don't  ask  me  to  believe  in  the  Divinity  of 
Christ,  because  you  push  Him  away  from 
me  when  you  do  that,  and  I  want  Him  to 
come  near.  If  I  can  only  say  to  myself, 
Christ  is  a  man,  like  myself,  believing  in  Him 
and  following  Him  becomes  simpler  for  me. 
But  when  you  say  He  is  God,  He  is  at  an  im- 
possible distance  from  me  at  once,  and  when 
you  speak  of  a  High  Priest,  touched  with  the 
feeling  of  my  infirmities,  and  tempted  in  all 
points,  like  as  I  am,  you  speak  in  an  unknown 
tongue.  That  Jesus  does  not  help  me  half  so 
much  as  the  Jesus  that  stands  down  beside  me 
and  lives  my  life. 

A  third  form  in  which  that  difficulty  is 
stated  is  this: 

How  are  we  to  understand  this  double 
Christ  who,  on  every  page  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, is  presented  as  our  ideal  and  example, 
Master  and  Lord?  Now  He  is  praying  to  the 
Father,  and  He  says,  "  My  Father,"  and,  while 
He  says  it,  He  looks  up  as  we  do  to  my  God 
and  your  God.  And  now  He  hangs  on  Cal- 
vary there  is  wrung  from  Him  the  cry  of 
seeming  despair  that  has  been  wrung  from 


no     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

human  souls  before  and  since — "  My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me?  "  Yet  you 
say  He  was  God — God  suffering,  God  in 
agony,  God  cry  to  God.  How  can  it  be  ?  You 
ask  me  to  believe  an  impossible  thing — a  dual 
nature  and  a  dual  consciousness.  Don't  put 
stumbling-blocks  for  the  weak.  Say  straight 
out,  you  preachers,  Jesus  was  man  and  have 
done  with  it,  and  then,  in  His  struggles  and 
in  His  triumphs,  I  feel  that  I  have  a  part. 

Have  I  stated  your  difficulty  fairly  and 
frankly?  I  will  meet  you  with  my  answer. 
It  is  that  Jesus  as  God — my  God,  Very  God 
of  Very  God.  I  could  not  do  without  Him. 
Give  me  the  Christ  or  I  have  no  Father;  and 
without  the  Christ  the  hope  of  poor  humanity 
is  gone.  Mr.  Gladstone  said  in  the  evening 
of  his  life,  in  answer  to  a  question  from  a 
correspondent,  "  All  I  think,  and  all  I  write, 
and  all  I  hope,  is  based  upon  the  Divinity  of 
our  Lord — that  one  central  hope  for  our  poor 
wayward  race." 

There  is  the  assertion  then.  I  take  my 
stand  with  Thomas,  and  speak  through  his 
lips  when  I  say,  "  My  Lord  and  My  God." 
Now  for  that  demonstration,  if  demonstration 
can  be  found.  Remember  this :  All  religious 
faith  that  is  worthy  of  the  name  is  the  re- 


THE    HUMANITY    OF    GOD  ill 

sultant  in  experience  of  a  number  of  propo- 
sitions which,  taken  separately,  would  be  un- 
convincing, but  taken  in  the  mass  are  over- 
whelming in  their  power  of  producing  con- 
viction. So  it  is  with  this  first  tenet  of  the 
Christian  faith — the  Godhead  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Let  me  clear  a  preliminary  difficulty  out 
of  your  way.  You  are  accustomed  to  think 
and  speak  of  humanity  and  divinity  as  though 
they  were  two  different  things.  They  are  not ; 
they  are  one  thing  and  indivisible.  In  Christ 
there  were  not  two  natures,  but  one.  When 
we  say  two,  we  speak  as  men  and  with  men's 
limitation.  The  humanity  of  Christ  was  His 
divinity,  and  when  you  have  gathered  all  hu- 
manity together,  you  have  got  Deity,  not  two 
things,  but  one  thing.  There  is  no  line  be- 
tween man  and  God,  looking  downwards; 
there  is  a  distinct  line  between  man  and  God, 
looking  upwards.  God  is  all  that  you  are,  and 
infinitely  more.  He  lives  more  of  your  life 
than  you  live  yourself.  He  knows  every 
thought  before  it  is  born,  and  if  you  separate 
yourself  from  Him  in  thought  He  will  follow 
you  with  His  chastisement,  because  He  cannot 
rid  Himself  of  that  part  of  His  life  which  is 
in  you.  Humanity  and  divinity  are  insepara- 


H2     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

ble,  and  that  consciousness  of  Deity  covers 
all  that  is  human. 

Now,  can  you  suppose  that  you  know  very 
much  about  Deity  when  you  have  said  this? 
All  that  you  know  about  Deity  is  human, 
every  bit  of  it.  We  speak  about  the  God  who 
is  declared  in  the  mountain  and  in  the  flood, 
the  God  who  speaks  by  nature,  and  so  on;  but 
Henry  Drummond  notwithstanding,  I  would 
say  with  Mr.  Dallinger,  that  great  Wesleyan, 
"  You  will  read  no  God  in  Nature  except  that 
God  you  take  to  Nature.  It  is  in  humanity 
that  you  find  Him.  Nature  may  confirm,  she 
cannot  affirm,  what  you  know  about  God. 
No,  it  is  in  humanity,  humanity  at  its  best, 
that  you  must  read  what  you  know  about  God. 

I  am  not  afraid  of  taking  you  to  the  Gospel 
for  the  answer.  All  men  who  believe  in  God 
got  Him  from  Christ.  Unitarian,  Trinita- 
rian, if  you  have  a  worthy  notion  of  your 
Father  in  heaven,  you  took  it  from  Jesus  of 
Nazareth;  He  brought  it  to  the  world;  He 
never  took  it  away.  Humanity  at  its  highest 
has  given  us  God;  and  yet  I  need  not  shrink 
from  saying,  even  in  Jesus  you  have  not  all 
there  is  of  God.  Infinitely  far  beyond  His  be- 
ing is  that  fathomless  abyss  which  is  still  the 
Father,  and  Jesus  looked  up  at  the  Father, 


THE    HUMANITY    OF    GOD          113 

infinite  in  power,  majesty,  and  glory,  when  He 
said,  "  My  God,"  but  when  I  look  up  at  the 
Father,  I  have  to  look  at  Him  through  the 
form  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  say,  "  You  are  Lord 
and  God  to  me;  I  cannot  see  the  Father's  face 
except  as  I  look  on  you. 

Now,  let  us  come  a  little  closer  still  to 
demonstration.  Admitting  that  humanity  is 
part  of  the  life  of  God,  and  must  be — for  I  do 
not  wish  to  be  unduly  metaphysical,  and  I 
hope  I  am  speaking  in  the  language  of  com- 
mon life — admitting  that  humanity  and  di- 
vinity are  one,  the  measure  of  humanity  is 
how  much  of  divinity  it  can  contain.  There 
is  not  a  man,  be  he  never  so  foolish  and  never 
so  bad,  but  contains  some  divinity.  The  di- 
vine spark  within  you  which  makes  you  man 
and  marks  you  man,  is  God.  The  deepest 
self  in  every  man  is  God.  The  rest  may  be 
beast — never  mind,  that  is  God  which  is  most 
truly  you.  And  you  don't  stand  by  yourself. 
All  humanity  is  related.  If  you  are  a  bad 
man,  I  am  a  sufferer  because  of  it ;  if  you  have 
done  something  good  I  am  a  beneficiary.  If 
you  are  living  a  true  life,  all  the  community 
feels  the  result.  No  man  liveth  to  himself. 
We  are  bound  together  by  invisible  bonds  that 
the  worst  of  us  cannot  break  and  the  strongest 


H4     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

cannot  transcend.  Now,  is  there  one  being 
anywhere  that  holds  us  all.  We  are  all  to- 
gether, we  cannot  escape  that,  and  we  don't 
want  to.  It  is  just  an  ordinary  fact,  an  or- 
dinary experience.  You  are  bound  to  your 
fellows.  The  whole  life  of  humanity  is  in 
some  sort  centered  in  you.  Is  there  any  being 
anywhere,  is  there  any  soul,  in  earth  or  heaven 
or  both,  that  holds  us  all?  I  think  I  have 
found  Him?  I  find  Him  here.  The  question 
was  never  asked  about  anybody  else  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world,  Is  He  man  or  is  He  God? 
Here  is  a  soul  that  holds  yours,  a  life  that  cov- 
ers yours.  He  came  to  His  own,  and  His  own 
received  Him  not.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Man 
of  men,  the  Man  to  whom  the  rest  look  up, 
and  something  more  than  that,  the  Man  Whose 
life  is  the  spring  and  the  source  of  all  that  is 
human.  "  Before  Abraham  was,"  he  said  of 
Himself,  "  I  am."  I  put  that  into  a  sentence : 
Jesus  Christ  is  just  that  side  of  the  nature  of 
God  in  which  the  humanity  lies. 

But  we  can  go  further  still.  Jesus  Christ 
becomes  a  pledge  and  guarantee  of  infinite 
God  for  the  salvation  of  men.  Not  only  is 
He  God,  and  must  be  God,  because  His  life 
is  behind  and  above  yours,  and  is  the  source  of 
all  that  is  worthiest  to  live  in  yours;  but  Jesus 


THE    HUMANITY    OF    GOD          115 

Christ  brings  infinite  God  into  finite  human 
life.  Every  noble  thought  you  have,  every 
worthy  deed  you  do,  has  come  from  farthest 
heaven,  and  has  come  through  the  life  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Moreover,  great  may  be  your  iniqui- 
ty, intractable  may  be  your  sin,  but  Jesus 
Christ,  Very  God  of  Very  God,  has  shown 
Himself  sufficient  for  your  sin.  Were  it  only 
for  that,  I  would  preach  the  Sinless  Man,  who 
rescues  sinful  men,  and  in  the  humanity  of  my 
Lord,  the  true  humanity  by  which  He  takes 
His  place  by  my  side,  I  read  the  infinity,  the 
eternity,  the  holiness  of  Deity;  and  so  I  am 
saved  by  the  Cross  of  Christ. 

Now,  may  I  quit  this  long  and  somewhat 
abstract  discussion,  and  come  to  what  I  think 
will  clear  up  the  difficulty,  if  any  remains,  by 
a  figure  drawn  from  human  experience?  Last 
Sunday  morning,  as  I  stood  face  to  face  with 
my  own  congregation,  the  sight  of  a  lady 
there  reminded  me  of  a  story  she  had  told  me 
of  an  incident  that  came  under  her  observa- 
tion in  visiting  the  sick  in  Brighton.  She 
said  she  had  called  upon  a  poor  woman,  an 
ignorant  woman,  a  hard-working  toiler,  and 
one  of  those  patient  souls  who  never  seem  to 
have  a  thought  for  themselves,  but  who  live 
for  other  people  all  their  days.  As  she  was 


n6     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

dying  she  was  anxious  about  her  children. 
The  visitor  tried  to  interest  her  in  her  own 
salvation,  but  it  could  not  be  done;  she  had 
not  time  to  listen,  she  was  so  anxious  about 
her  children,  what  was  to  become  of  them  now 
that  the  mother  who  had  earned  the  few  pence 
that  kept  them  from  penury  was  passing  away  ? 
The  visitor  told  her  about  Jesus  and  about 
God,  and  said  the  love  of  God  was  sufficient 
for  her  babes.  What  do  you  suppose  was  the 
reply  of  the  dying  woman  ?  She  said,  "  I 
don't  believe  in  God;  I  have  never  found  that 
God  the  Father  gave  me  much  help  in  my 
struggle  to  live;  I  am  afraid  of  Him,  but  I 
believe  in  Jesus,  and  I  think  if  He  were  here 
I  could  tell  Him  all  my  troubles,  and  I  am 
sure  He  would  answer  and  help  me."  You 
will  be  surprised,  doubtless,  to  think  that  such 
an  utterance  could  ever  have  been  made,  that 
anybody  anywhere  could  have  separated  be- 
tween Jesus  and  God.  She  talked  of  them 
both  as  though  they  were  alive,  and  then  said, 
"  I  don't  believe  in  God,  and  cannot  trust 
Him,  but  if  Jesus  were  here — if  Jesus  were 
here !  "  The  truth  is  that  human  nature  spoke 
out  there  in  a  demand  whose  urgency  will  nev- 
er be  lessened  unless  you  bring  God  to  the  res- 
cue of  human  sorrow  when  you  breathe  the 


THE    HUMANITY    OF    GOD          1 1/ 

name  of  Jesus.  She  spoke  what  we  all  feel. 
Jesus  pledged  the  great  heart  of  God  when 
He  said,  "  My  Father  and  your  Father :  I 
will  pray  the  Father  for  you,  and  He  shall 
send  you  another  comforter ; "  "I  and  My 
Father  are  one/'  When  you  have  seen  Him, 
you  have  seen  all  you  need  to  know  of  God, 
you  have  penetrated  to  that  last  place  in  His 
nature.  Nature  is  only  the  outwork  of  God; 
Jesus  gives  us  the  very  heart  of  the  Father. 

One  more,  and  it  may  be  a  little  personal, 
but  let  it  pass.  The  other  day,  a  little  person 
in  my  house  came  home  to  tell  me  of  a  strange 
thing  she  had  seen  on  a  placard  about  her 
father.  She  did  not  say  so,  she  said  "  about 
the  minister  of  the  City  Temple."  I  have 
been  extremely  careful  not  to  read  a  single 
word  anywhere  else  than  on  the  placard  about 
that  personality  within  the  last  few  weeks. 
The  little  one  told  me  again  and  again  of  what 
she  had  seen  here  and  seen  there.  I  said, 
"  Well,  this  is  a  person  that  you  don't  seem 
to  know  anything  about;  he  has  so  many  vir- 
tues, so  many  peculiarities,  and  so  many  ac- 
complishments, and,  to  judge  by  the  pencil- 
lings  and  the  reproduced  presentments  here  and 
there,  he  is  a  person  you  have  never  seen." 
I  said  to  her,  "  I  wonder  who  he  is  ?  "  She 


Ii8     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

put  both  her  arms  around  my  neck,  as  she  said, 
"  He  is  my  Father ! "  And  I  look  up  to 
farthest  heaven,  and  I  see  that  not  a  planet 
stirs  a  hair's-breadth  from  its  course,  and  I 
am  lost  in  the  immensity  of  the  conception, 
and  I  am  afraid  as  I  think  of  the  machinery, 
and  I  come  down  to  earth,  and  I  bend  over  a 
broken  heart,  and  I  hear  a  man  cry,  "  God  be 
merciful  to  me!  "  I  think  of  that  poor  atom 
of  humanity,  and  I  think  of  that  pathless  in- 
finity over  against  it,  and  then  I  remember  and 
say,  my  Jesus  is  the  Master  and  the  Lord,  the 
King  of  Lords,  and  the  friend  of  the  sorrow- 
ful all  the  same. 

Let  us  try  to  put  ourselves  into  the  very 
imagination  of  Thomas,  and  see  how  he 
thought  and  felt.  Thomas  had  come  to  some- 
body that  he  thought  had  brought  new  truth 
to  the  world.  "Is  not  this  a  King?"  He 
was  telling  his  friends,  "  This  man  that  I  have 
just  found  is  going  to  grasp  the  scepter  of 
the  Caesars,  and  when  He  has  got  it,  He  will 
rule  over  such  a  kingdom  as  the  world  has 
never  seen !  "  But,  in  a  while,  Thomas  and 
his  friends  forgot  the  king  as  they  sat  listen- 
ing open-mouthed  to  One  who  spake  as  never 
man  spake.  Into  the  very  upper  room  these 
men  carried  their  little  ambitions  and  their 


THE    HUMANITY    OF    GOD          119 

hopes  to  see  their  Master  crowned  with  a 
crown  of  gold.  Oh,  but  when  they  saw  Him 
crowned  with  a  crown  of  thorns  it  seemed  as 
though  all  their  hopes  were  overwhelmed,  and 
they  had  to  begin  at  the  beginning  again,  and 
look  for  another  than  this,  this  poor  suffering 
One  who  was  dying  on  Calvary,  both  hands 
nailed  to  the  tree;  and  they  could  not  do  it; 
they  found  they  loved  Him.  And  it  was  be- 
cause Thomas's  heart  was  breaking  at  the 
news  that  He  was  dead,  murdered  by  those 
He  had  tried  to  save,  that  in  his  despair  he 
said,  "  I  saw  Him !  I  saw  Him  die ;  I  cannot 
believe  He  will  ever  live  again."  "  My  Lord  " 
he  called  Him ;  and  "  Lord  "  here  means  noth- 
ing but  Master;  I  might  call  you  Lord,  and 
mean  nothing  more  than  Thomas  meant  when 
he  said  "  Lord  "  to  Jesus.  "  My  Master  has 
gone;  He  will  never  come  back.  I  saw  Him 
die.  Except  I  see  in  His  hands  the  prints  of 
the  nails,  and  put  my  ringer  on  the  print  of  the 
nails,  and  thrust  my  hand  where  I  saw  the 
spear  go,  I  will  not  believe."  Then  he  look- 
ed up  and  saw  Him.  His  Master  spoke  and 
said,  "  Put  your  ringer  on  the  print  of  the 
nails,  thrust  your  hand  into  my  side,  Thom- 
as." Thomas  did  not  wait  to  do  either,  but 
he  cried  out  in  a  joy  that  there  was  no  sup- 


120     THE    KEYS    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

pressing,  and  in  a  faith  which  had  just  been 
sorrow,  and  recalled  a  love  which  had  been  his 
whole  life,  as  he  thought  about  the  Jesus  who 
told  him  of  the  Father.  "  He  has  come  back ! 
He  is  something  more  than  He  was  before  to 
me.  How  is  it  I  never  saw  it?  Why  was  it 
I  never  saw  it?  My  Lord  and  My  God!" 
He  had  learned  the  humanity  of  God  in  the 
love  that  was  drawn  out  of  him  in  spite  of 
himself  to  the  human  Jesus;  and  now  they 
saw  Him  as  He  was,  the  Lord  of  life  and  glory, 
the  Soul  of  humanity,  the  Friend  of  the  lost, 
and  the  Deliverer  of  all  who  call  unto  Him; 
they  found  that  the  grave  could  not  hold  Him. 
When  Thomas  and  those  with  him  cried  out, 
"  My  Lord  and  my  God,"  a  new  hour  of 
triumph  had  dawned  for  humanity,  and  it  is 
shining  to-day. 

Put  your  difficulties  into  the  pit.  Away 
with  them!  For  Jesus  has  given  you  God. 
Don't  deprive  your  life  of  anything  that  would 
help  to  make  it  grand  and  good.  You  need 
a  Saviour,  whether  you  have  ever  recognised 
it  or  not,  and  you  need  a  heavenly  friend,  such 
as  He  was  and  is;  and  without  Him  there  is 
none  other.  I  summon  you  to  Thomas's 
creed  and  Thomas's  Lord,  saying  with  the 
voice  of  the  doubter,  "  My  Lord  and  my 


THE    HUMANITY    OF    GOD          121 

God,"  and  He  will  never  fail  you  all  the  days 
of  life.  Christ  is  our  Saviour  from  every- 
thing which  humanity  has  cause  to  dread,  and 
our  Saviour  to  everything  for  which  humanity 
ought  to  hope. 

I  hope  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face, 
When  I  have  crossed  the  bar. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


f  VTCEK    JUN   8   1994 


A     000120128     4 


